Home
Home

The Eye 3 (2005)

DVD Cover (Lions Gate)
Add to Collection
Sign up to add this to your collection
Add to Favorites
Sign up to add this to your favorites
Overall Rating 46%
Overall Rating
Ranked #7,265
...out of 20,324 movies
Check In? Sign up to check in!

Connections: The Eye

Ted, his cousin May, her best friend April and April's boyfriend, Kofei take a vacation to Thailand to visit their Thai buddy, Chongkwai, who shows them a book of ten ways to see ghosts. And the game begins... --IMDb
User Image
Review by Chad
Added: June 30, 2008
What in the hell was this crap? That's the thing that kept going through my head as I sat through each and every last torturous minute of this film, and the only reason that I didn't turn it off after the first ten minutes was because I knew that I'd be covering it on this site. See what I go through for you dear readers? What made this turd of a movie even worse was the fact that the Pang brothers, a couple of Hong Kong's greatest exports, were the ones responsible for it. These are two guys who have had a great track record thus far in their careers with even their worst films being slightly above average, so it was particularly disappointing to find that their latest (American DVD) release was so unfathomably awful.

The first question that I had when I discovered this release was "How in the hell can they keep the storyline fresh?" After all, the original film didn't exactly leave room for a sequel, but when said sequel did get released, there was really no possible way that any serious filmmaker could have made a third film while still staying true to the original concept. Thankfully, I was right: The Eye 3 (originally entitled The Eye 10 - this will get confusing when the next sequel, The Eye 3, is released) is basically a standalone film that borrows the name of the original film and nothing else aside from a few brief (brief, as in, blink and you'll miss them) mentions of the events from the first two films.

The storyline that we do get consists of four friends - Ted (Bo-lin Chen), his cousin May (Kate Yeung), May's best friend April (Isabella Leong), and April's boyfriend Kofei (Yu Gu) - taking a vacation to Thailand to spend time with their friend Chongkwai (Ray MacDonald). After spending their first day together and coming home to relax before bed, they decide to tell ghost stories - the traditional Asian way of passing the time, or so their films have lead me to believe. Anyway, the ghost stories presented here are pretty goofy to say the very least, and this leads to Chongkwai breaking out a book that purportedly shows ten different ways that you - yes, you! - can see ghosts for yourself. Naturally, it doesn't take long before our heroes decide to try them out, and this somehow leads to one of their own becoming trapped in the spirit world. The rest of the group must find a way to get him back to the land of the living, and we have ourselves a film.

So, what's the problem here? It doesn't exactly sound like the very definition of originality, but surely there's some potential there especially when one realizes that it's in capable hands, right? The problem is simple: the film is presented as a horror comedy with equal parts emphasis on the "horror" and the "comedy." This leads to a horror film that you can't take seriously (after all, it's hard to be scared minutes after watching a You Got Served-inspired dance contest between a human and a ghost), but at the same time, the vast majority of the jokes just aren't very funny. That dance contest was one of the few exceptions to that statement and some of the parodies of scenes from other Asian horror releases also drew a giggle, but a solid ninety percent of the humor seems to have been lost in translation.

This horror / comedy negation pops up time and time again in the film, and it really made sitting through the entire running time a chore. Take, for example, the ending. I won't spoil it, but it attempts to end the film with a deep, profound shocker... but will you really care after having watched the heroes battle and defeat ghosts with their farts alone? Will you really give a shit about the exorcism that opens the film after the possessed woman starts smacking the monks with her tongue? As a horror film, this release could have been decent - unneeded and uninspired, but decent. As a film that attempted to mix together horror and comedy, we got a film that is neither funny nor scary. The only emotion that I felt throughout the film was sadness... sadness in regards to how far those Pang brothers have fallen.

To be fair, it's not the worst movie that I've seen all year, even though it is damned close. Some of the jokes do manage to pull a laugh or two and some of the scares are effective (though you'll disagree if you've grown tired of Asian ghost stories), but again, it's that mixture that brings the entire product down. Unfortunately, I'm going to have to go with a huge "Pass" on this one, even after it inevitably makes its way to the bargain bin. 2/10.
Sign up to add your comment. Sign up to add your comment.
Recommended Movies
The Eye The Eye 2 The Child's Eye The Eye Naina The Messengers The Convent Tormented Omen Gozu Buppah Rahtree Phase 2: Rahtree Returns Bangkok Haunted Faces Of Schlock Blown Killer Pad Faces Of Schlock, Vol. 2 The Slaughter When Evil Calls
Layout, reviews and code © 2000-2024 | Privacy Policy
Contact: Join us on Facebook Follow us on Twitter Review Updates