Same old ghost story

Alfred Hitchcock once gave a description of the difference between "surprise" and "suspense," which I feel is applicable when thinking about "horror" movies such as "The Eye." Suppose you are watching a scene in which two characters are having a normal, everyday discussion while sitting at a desk. Suddenly, a bomb underneath the desk explodes. Hitchcock defines this as surprise. The audience is surprised, but prior to this surprise, the scene was of no great consequence. Now suppose you are watching the same scene, only you are aware that the bomb is underneath the desk, but the unknowing characters keep talking. This is suspense.\n"The Eye," like so many other remakes of Asian horror movies since 2000, is full of surprises, but they are all of the cheap quality that masters such as Hitchcock rarely used.\nJessica Alba plays Sydney, a concert violinist who has been blind since her childhood. After a cornea transplant in which she receives two new eyes from a deceased donor, however, Sydney regains her vision, along with the horrific ability to see the ghosts of dead people and the spirits that escort them to the afterlife. While trying to assure her doctors of her sanity and stray away from the CGI henchmen of the underworld, Sydney begins a mission to find out more about her donor, who she believes has somehow unlocked the door to a terrifying world that now only she can see. This is where the surprises begin, but like Hitchcock assures us, they are of no great consequence.\nThis unrelenting cliche of a movie tries to frighten the audience by using all the old tricks: a blurry shadow that runs behind an unknowing character, a shrieking old woman who flails toward the camera, accompanied by an equally shrieking stringed-instrument soundtrack and a strong-willed female protagonist determined to right the wrongs of the afterlife. \nAlthough Alba and her supporters are adequate, this seemingly interesting story is clothed in hackneyed spooks and specters and is presented in a less-than-average fashion. If you liked "The Ring" or "The Grudge," you could walk out of this movie with a smile on your face, but I assure you that this one offers nothing more than what you've already seen before.