---

advertisement

seeing spirits

Using the Pang Brothers’ original 2002 concept, Frenchmen David Moreau and Xavier Palud remade Sebastian Gutierrez’s screenplay, starring Jessica Alba as blind violinist Sydney Wells. Moreau and Palud’s remake set out to trump the original in creepiness. It accomplishes that goal with today’s newer state-of-the-art frightening special effects. Alba did her homework on her character with a credible performance as Sydney, who gets a cornea transplant and almost immediately sees dead people. Her donor turns out to be a Mexican woman (Fernando Romero), whose spirit has stayed earthbound to communicate with Sydney about something important.
Of course, Sydney does not immediately figure out that her donor is haunting her. After her transplant, Sydney becomes overloaded with visual imagery, which freaks her out. Consequently, she is sent to see a specialist, Dr. Paul Faulkner (Alessandro Nicola), who helps her adjust to having sight. Sydney lost her sight at age 5, so she has almost no memory of the visual world. Adjusting to sight is difficult enough, but Sydney is terrified of the afterlife images she is seeing. She calls her sister Helen Wells (Parker Posey) to be with her.
Sydney had risen to soloist status in her orchestra, directed by maestro Simon McCullough. But after her transplant she has difficulty concentrating on her music and Simon is concerned. She reverts back to reading Braille and is finding that the stress of having sight, combined with seeing ghosts, has left her emotionally disturbed. Finding out the truth of why she is being harassed by her donor is the only way she can function.
Sydney pleads with Dr. Faulkner to reveal the identity of her donor. He reluctantly agrees, and Sydney and her disbelieving sister go on a road trip to Mexico. There Sydney meets the donor of the eye.
As the story unfolds, Sydney’s visions of the afterlife become much more vivid. She sees her donor in the mirror and sees dark shadowy figures escorting the dead to the afterlife. Her dreams are set in the afterlife, and she suffers from sleep depravation. Filmmakers Moreau and Palud create a scary mosaic using eerie special effects. The advent of numerous afterlife TV shows helped the directors sell the concept of “cell memory.” Thus, Sydney is seeing with the eyes of her donor. But, Sydney’s connection with her donor is much more defined. Sydney has advanced psychic abilities that are triggered by her new corneas.
Moreau and Palud’s updated treatment of the Pang Brothers’ original film seems too contrived to suck in horror fans. However, they went the extra mile to at least imbue the picture with arty backgrounds and otherworldly scene craft. Alba brings her star power to the film with a convincing characterization of Sydney. Perhaps having her other senses highly tuned was preferable to having sight along with psychic abilities. For Sydney, finding out what her donor wants is top priority.
The film moves along with some predictable frights. But overall, Moreau and Palud brought their French style to the production, upgrading the mediocre story considerably. Of course, ogling Alba is one of the perks of viewing this picture.