Fantastic Fest 2011: TWO EYES STARING Review

The original Dutch title of this supernatural thriller is Zwart Water (Dark Water), and this is a similar tale to that of the haunted apartment building in the original Japanese film.  I don't think this is a remake, there is enough changed about the film to assume that it isn't, but it does use some of the same tools.  Two Eyes Staring is really nothing too special.  The pace is far too contemplative to really inject any adrenaline into the viewer, and there is very little in the way of genuine fright in the film, so I'm left feeling a bit confused as to what I've just witnessed.  Is it horror? Is it a thriller? Supernatural thriller? Was it supposed to be scary? I don't know the answer to any of these questions, and I'd imagine you'll be hard pressed to come up with them by the time the final credits roll.

The story begins on a family with some money problems.  Paul is a stay at home Dad, his wife Christine is a struggling artist, and their daughter Lisa, well, there's just something wrong with her.  When Christine's estranged mother dies in another country, she comes to inherit the country mansion in which she was raised.  Against her better judgement, she agrees to move the whole family in as a way to save money and hopefully launch her career while her husband works as a maintenance man in a local factory.  Their daughter is suddenly in a new school, in a new country, with the same old problems.  I've never seen a child so morose in a film before, it is a bit unnerving.  A nine year old girl should smile sometimes, but I don't recall having seen Lisa smile once through the entire running time of Two Eyes Staring. 

Very shortly after they move is, Lisa begins to witness strange things and eventually discovers the ghost of a young girl in the house. Lisa feels a kinship, almost an empathy, with the ghost, and they begin to commune in very unusual ways.  When her parents start noticing strange goings-on around them, they ask Lisa, who identifies the ghost as the culprit. Her father becomes concerned for Lisa's mental state, and her mother just begins to act mental, avoiding her daughter, even denying her existence to her employers. The only character in the film with whom I felt any sort of empathy was Paul.  Paul is constantly the median between his spooky daughter and his uptight and irrational wife.  We see him pulled back and forth between them constantly.

The family is so dysfunctional when the film begins that it is difficult to feel empathy with anyone on screen.  Even the ghost is more empathetic than the living folks, and she does some messed up stuff!  As the film progresses, more and more about the ghost's past and present is unveiled to the viewer, and the story becomes more complex.  At this point, everyone's mental state comes into question, and secrets begin pouring out of this person and that person at an alarming rate.  In the middle of all of this exposition, reeling just as much as we are, is Paul. Poor Paul. At this point it becomes difficult to root for him.  He clearly loves his wife and daughter, but the fact that he refuses to make a choice to protect one or the other simply makes him look weak.

Two Eyes Staring is a tricky film to dissect.  I would call it a slow burn, except that it never seems to catch fire, instead, simply smoking for 100 minutes and then going out. Tonally, the film is similar to Alejandro Amenabar's The Others, except that The Others has a big reveal that opens the film up and makes it all worthwhile.  I don't see that moment in Two Eyes Staring.  It is a series of odd and disturbing events that eventually ends in a particularly untragic tragedy. Perhaps others will find this one more unsettling than I did, but I just wasn't convinced.