In 2002, Oxide and Danny Pang’s The Eye made its way to our American shores from Hong Kong. I’ve never understood why this film’s title was singular when it actually deals with both eyes. The story follows a blind girl as she gets an “eye transplant” to replace her bad eyes with a set of good ones. Only her new eyes still have memories from their former host. They can see dead people and such, so the girl embarks on a quest to figure out what they are trying to tell her.

This original film had a mildly successful run on the festival and arthouse circuit so it was only a matter of time before Hollywood would decide to craft their own version. This new version, written by Sebastian Gutierrez (Snakes on a Plane) and directed by David Moreau and Xavier Palud (Them), stays relatively true to its material. It’s not particularly scary (or even great), and it definitely requires you to suspend your disbelief, but going along for the ride is a lot easier than you want it to be. So what if it’s beyond ridiculous.

Sydney Wells (Jessica Alba) is a blind violinist undergoing a surgery to replace her eyes with fresh a fresh pair of working ones. She will be able to see for the first time in more years than she can remember. The period of adjustment afterwards is a little more than she can handle. It’s hard to utilize the sense of sight when you’ve relied on the other four senses for so long. Dr. Paul Faulkner (Alessandro Nivola) assists her with trying to get used to having sight.

It’s a little challenging at first, putting a visual placement for things heard and felt, but she gets the hang of it in no time. Until she realizes that some of the weird people she’s been bumping into are ghosts. Like this guy who keeps appearing in the elevator of her apartment building. He has a large hole in his face (perhaps a victim of suicide?) and floats above the carpet, menacingly hovering towards her every time she boards the elevator. What’s his deal?

We never learn too much about him. It doesn’t matter; he’s just there for effect, to create a sense of mood. The other “people” she sees, like the little boy with a bubble wrap raincoat, do have purpose. Sydney follows the clues they present to figure out the reason of their demise. But her most repetitive premonition involves a girl in a basement being terrorized by kids surrounding her house throwing rocks. Why are these kids doing that for and what drives this girl to hang herself? That is the main mystery that drives Sydney all the way to Mexico to figure out whose eyes these really are and why she keeps seeing the things she is.

It’s PG-13, so gore-craving horror fans will surely be disappointed. The Eye isn’t as visually appealing as the original either, nor is it as moody. Teenagers in the audience will surely be fooled by the all the “scares” scattered about (as proved by the Saturday night crowd I saw it with). You won’t be though. If anything, it’ll make for an okay rental experience, so you can point out Jessica Alba’s lack of emotional conveyance. This chick just got a new set of eyes, sees horrific things and events, yet somehow manages to remain calm. Or maybe that’s just her way of acting frightened. Just be prepared to suspend your disbelief a little more than usual.