This Review Reveals Minor Details About the Plot.
I See Dead People
Plot Overview
There's a brief
fractured-lens opening scene, a pastiche of merciless children
calling a harried woman a “bruja” (witch) and driving her to hang
herself. The kids pursue her across a rural expanse, she
throws a cable over an exposed pipe & ties it off, cinches it
around her neck, and stands under it on a ratty chair. A
frightening ghoul makes her jump. This news from some third world
country is not good.
We go from
there to violinist Sydney Wells (Jessica Alba) participating
as lead in an orchestra rehearsal the day before her scheduled
cornea transplants. She'd lost her sight in a firecracker
accident at age five, had a failed transplant at twelve, and
now at twenty-years-old is going to get new peepers. The formality
of her recital as well as the uniformed doorman & lilies
in the lobby of her high rise anchor her in a First World
familiarity with life in the big city. That's about to change,
along the lines of a James Webb novel:
Songs, he mused. They were emotional umbilical cords that fed a man the World for a few minutes, even in Vietnam. And some were omens. I see a bad moon rising, the song had intoned. I see trouble on the way.Hodges patted Barger on one thick shoulder, intending to cheer him up, but the song bounded through his fear and deflated the gesture. Don't go out tonight, it's bound to take your life. There's a bad moon on the rise. (264)
Besides having to integrate seeing
with her other senses, senses enhanced by her blindness and musical
skills—she has second sight now of the spiritual world. She
has fiery premonitions, vestigial memories, and visions of ghouls
escorting the recently deceased (“I'm not ready to go”)
to the afterlife. The disbelieving doctors tell her she just
needs time to adjust. She does independent research on Google to
learn of cell memory transferred with transplants.
Eye specialist Dr. Paul Faulkner (Alessandro Nivola)
agrees that chemical peptides can communicate between
body and brain, but corneas are too little; they're like getting a
new windshield on an old car. They're small potatoes; they
shouldn't matter.
A battery of psych tests
shows Sydney to be normal except for some enhanced creativity,
which is typical for artists and musicians, of which she's the
latter. It's all she can do to persuade her new, doctor friend Paul
(“We're in this together”) to drive her fifteen hours
to Mexico to question the donor's mom.
Ideology
The donor had a rough
time since childhood fitting in with her neighbors. Conflicts arose
à la, (Prov. 30:33)
“Surely the churning of milk bringeth forth butter, and the
wringing of the nose bringeth forth blood: so the forcing of wrath
bringeth forth strife.” A constant aggravation over time can
change a state of peace to one of war like liquid milk becoming
solid butter through churning. So can a blow to a critical area
like a nose cause it to bleed. The former is illustrated here by a
skateboarder grooving to tunes on his headphones, holding
in hand a folded newspaper, slalom racing down a crowded
sidewalk, failing to look up at the Don't Walk sign. That's a good way to all of a
sudden change from cool dude to road kill. The latter is
illustrated by a speeding car attempting to crash a police roadblock.
The Mexican girl was prone to premonitions of people about to pass away. She would sit on their steps and weep. Then they would die. Says the mom, “This is a small town, many superstitions.” This happens often enough and people confuse indicator with causality and call the common denominator a “bruja” (witch.) There was a ceramics factory in that town. It would employ a kiln. The factory managers would lock the workers in to keep them from leaving early. One day a fire breaks out and the mother of Ana Christina Martinez (Fernanda Romero) is working there. Ana shows up trying to warn them, but the bosses shoo her away as a nuisance. Señora Martinez tells her visitors, “All the doors were locked and nobody could get out.” Of course the “witch” was blamed, but “If they had listened to Ana, they would have been saved.”
Now Sydney is gifted with the same second sight. When she tells people about her visions, they pass it off as an artifact of the operation. She is wise to keep it to herself. Then she's privy to a pending catastrophe. She must warn people post haste. But if she comes off like a mad woman, it will be counterproductive. So she uses her creativity to accomplish the task.
Production Values
“” (2008) was based on a 2002 Chinese horror flick “The Eye” (“Gin Gwai.”) It was directed by David Moreau and Xavier Palud. It was written by Sebastian Gutierrez, Yuet-Jan Hui and Oxide Chun Pang. It stars Jessica Alba, Alessandro Nivola and Parker Posey. Alba was pitch perfect as a steady minded blind person tasked with comprehending a new world and then some. She was easy on the eyes. The supporting cast were also flawless.
MPA rated it PG–13 for violence/terror and disturbing
content. The creepy music in the background warns us of
impending scares, enough to make teenyboppers scream. The
effects are decent with a smattering of CGI. I particularly liked the mirrors
reflecting the wrong face. Good one that. The orchestral music
sounded good to my untrained ear, at least when Sydney had it
together. Runtime is 1½ hours.
Review Conclusion w/a Christian's Recommendation
In Mexico we saw poverty, superstition, and the Catholic church. In California we saw beautiful people, scientific doctoring, and blatant skepticism. I suffered an eye injury as a kid playing a stupid game. A specialist saved my vision. These guys are my heroes. If you can handle horror, the movie is otherwise tame. Science purists may find medical objections.
Movie Ratings
Action Factor: Weak action scenes. Suitability for Children: Suitable for children 13+ years with guidance. Special effects: Amazing special effects. Video Occasion: Good for Groups. Suspense: Keeps you on the edge of your seat. Overall movie rating: Four stars out of five.
Works Cited
Scripture is quoted from the King James Version. Pub. 1611, rev. 1769. Software.
Jondora Music: Specified lines from the song “Bad Moon Rising,” by John Fogerty. © Copyright 1969 by Jondora Music.
Webb, James. Fields of Fire. Copyright © 1978 by James Webb. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1978. Print.
bibles.n7nz.org