Now available on DVD
Cast:
Chen Bo Lin as Ted
Isabella Leong as April
Kate Yeung as May
Kris Gu as Yu Gu
Ray MacDonald as Chongkwai
Bongkoth Kongmalai as Mysterious Thai Girl
Directed by The Pang Brothers
Review:
One of the best things about watching international horror films is seeing traditional archetypes – zombies, vampires, witches, ghosts – from fresh perspectives rooted in distinctly foreign cultures. For example, in The Eye 3, the Pang Brothers, who helped put Hong Kong on the horror radar in the late â90s, invoke a Thai legend to put a unique twist on an otherwise typical teen thriller. But if there’s any global truth in the movie biz, it’s that you’re only as good as your last picture, and with this bafflingly misguided installment in their Eye series, the Pangs move dangerously close to becoming the Asian horror equivalent of the Wachowski Brothers.
Within its opening reel The Eye 3 decisively severs ties from its predecessors both in continuity and style, dropping the subtlety of the original film and assaulting us with a tongue-on-cheek prologue followed by a hyperkinetic, bubble-gum colored credit sequence that introduces our teen protagonists, siblings Ted and May, and their equally vacant peers. While gathered at a friend’s Thailand home for an evening of snacks and drinks, the group turns their attention to ghost stories, prompting resident paranormal junkie Chongkwai to pull out a tome entitled The 10 Encounters, a legendary chronicle of means that supposedly enable the living to see the dead. It’s not long before a game emerges in which the meddling kids decide to test each method, starting with the most elementary and moving forward.
Their attempts are, of course, successful, producing ethereal beings that stand ominously in the shadows, scamper around the group, and moan on cue. What they don’t produce, however, is scares. Any scares. That’s partially because this territory is just as tired and played out in Hong Kong horror as it is in American movies, but most of the blame rests on writer/director duo Danny and Oxide Pang, who’ve chosen to approach their third Eye as if it were an episode of Goosebumps.
While the first Eye was grossly overrated, it did have at least one truly jarring scare sequence, coupled with an appealing lead and a compelling narrative. The Pangs’ third ocular venture lacks all three. With the introduction of the 10 Encounters, the film splinters into a series of vignettes about spooky incidents (loosely) inspired by the book’s passages, strung ever so tenuously together by Ted and May’s mission to rescue the friends that disappear as they continue to meddle in the spirit world. The most effective of these occurs when May is accosted in a hallway by a bouncing basketball seemingly wielded by an unseen stalker, a moment that for a bit feels like a sinister take on The Red Balloon.
But there is no build up to any of these sequences, no time for tension to set in, and instead of sustaining fear, they degenerate into misplaced humor. Horror is usurped by raging hormones; Ted diffuses a ghost attack by farting; and in what is by default the film’s piece de resistance, an incidence of ghostly possession leads to a dance competition.
Paced like an Xbox game and populated by attractive Asian teens, the film is probably targeted at a different audience than those who sought out the first two Eyes, but it’s unlikely that even the most attention-deficient youths would find interest in the Pangs’ portrait of their generation. Those that do will have a hell of a time sorting through the largely incoherent conclusion, in which Ted and May adorn themselves in Thai ceremonial garb and attempt to infiltrate the spirit world to retrieve their friends — at least, that’s presumably the goal; their motives are never actually clear. Equally ambiguous are the ghosts’ motivations. We’re told that as long as humans mind their own business, the spirits will mind theirs, but if that were the case The Eye 3 would be half its seemingly infinite 86-minute length.
Alternatively titled The Eye 10 and The Eye: Infinity, part 3 of the Pangs’ spook saga is the sad fulfillment of groundwork established when the pair began crafting the first Eye. According to the filmmakers, the legendary â10 encountersâ provided their initial inspiration for the series, but feeling that one film could not adequately address all 10, they picked one encounter as the basis for The Eye and another for its first sequel. Despite purporting to address the remaining 8, The Eye 3 only grazes this overarching Eye mythos, lending nothing to the series and ultimately undermining the Pangs’ previous accomplishments.
Some may not be as repelled by The Eye 3 as this reviewer, but if this is the direction in which the series is headed, I’d prefer the Pangs just give these eyes a rest.
