20130924: Horror Review--My Little Eye

My Little Eye

1. Fundamentals
1. Canadian live action feature length film, released in 2002, rated R, 95 minutes, horror.
2. IMDB: 5.6/10.0 from 8,359 users.  Estimated budget: 2 million USD.
3. Rotten Tomatoes: 65% on the meter; 38% from 8,881 audience ratings.
4. Directed by: Marc Evans.  Screenplay by: David Hilton.
5. Starring: Stephen O'Reilly as Danny, Kris Lemche as Rex, Sean CW Johnson as Matt, Laura Regan as Emma, Jennifer Sky as Charlie, Bradley Cooper as Travis.


2. Setup and Plot
1. Six fools agree to live in one house for six months.  They get a million dollars if they succeed.  Does the desire for money overcome one's other obligations?


2. Part of the proceedings occur in the Canadian winter, and the furnace breaks down.


3. Are the crows and owls in the attic bad omens or just something one should expect (cold winter, relatively warm attic)?


4. The packages from the outside tend to contain messages to the individuals.  The six contestants always hope for food.  During the film they get bricks (sad tale from the younger days of one of the women) and a letter notifying the death in the family of one of the contestants; the next package has champagne and a gun (gun violence in the past of one of the men).


5. The 'bloody' hammer next to one of the women in bed one morning was a further shift.


6. A visitor drops in who is an internet programmer.  He's never heard of them.  Not a good sign.  Before leaving, the visitor steals a piece of Emma's underwear and hides it in Danny's room.  Emma feels OK invading everyone else's space.  Great stuff.


7. Soon after the visitor leaves they find some of his gear near the drop site with blood on it.


8. Emma keeps asserting his guilt; Danny hangs himself.  Game over, according to the rules.  They radio for help.  No one responds.


9. Rex cobbles together an internet connection.  He cannot find any reference to their contest.  Hence no subscribers.  The company that planned the contest has a stub beta site with heavy encryption, or so it seems.


10. Then they get to see the betting odds on each of their characters.  As in many mysteries, it's 'follow the money.'


3. Conclusions
1. One sentence spoiler: Over the Internet snuff reality show with online betting.
2. One sentence summary:  Does the desire for money overcome one's other obligations?
3. Three stars of five.


4. Scores
1. Cinematography: 7/10 Better than webcam quality, but not always by much.  Some of the exteriors were just fine.  The split screens (multiple points of view) were sometimes interesting.  The switches from narration filming (good, steady, well done) to the POV of the reality show camera people (so-so to poor webcams) is a little jarring.


2. Sound: 4/10 Bad microphone problems, but incidental sounds are much creepier than the oddly planned visuals.


3. Acting: 5/10 Fine if you like twenty-somethings who still reside in the teen maturity range.


4. Screenplay: 9/10 Initial objectives seem clear enough.  The actual objectives take time to surface.  It's an old theme (snuff films) updated to the Internet setting (online betting, current video).