Don't Open Your Eyes

Don't open your eyes has its flaws, that's for sure. Lots of them, from too-heavy accents to pacing issues to the composed music drowning out the dialogue. If you look past that, though, it is a very creepy diamond in the rough. Watching it reminded me of when I first read Stephen King's Gramma, it felt like it drew inspiration directly from that. Needless to say, Gramma freaked me out, so naturally, this freaked me out too. It takes a very long time for the supernatural aspects to come into play but when it finally does happen, it's all kinds of spooky, and the last 30 minutes or so are one hell of a ride. Those that so boldly claim that it's the worst film they've seen or utter trash have clearly never seen an Uwe Boll or Tom Six movie or anything in that vicinity. This film lacks polish, has some issues, but aside from that, it was a very pleasant surprise, and I wholeheartedly recommend it above some other mainstream horror films.

I downloaded and watched this low budget pos yesterday. Saturday afternoon, nice day, relaxing on my day off, it's the weekend, I feel like watching some horror, what the hell. When I say this was just slow awful and stupid, I'm being very nice. Don't open your eyes to this crap is a better title or don't even bother, would be more suitable, this was just awful. Avoid this three cast F upped class horror..ble film. A portion of my day off ruined.

Very confusing plot. Might have understood more if I understood the dialogue. But a lot of the lines were mumbled or too thickly accented or drowned out by music. Subtitles would have helped a lot.

Acting and photography was OK but the film was very slow and tedious. Don't bother with this one.

I really liked the cinematography which was atmospheric and reminded me of classic horrors such as The Omen and The Exorcist, with wintry outside shots slightly blue grey.

For the most part the visuals in the film were excellent - moody with interesting shot choices that really kept visual interest.

As for the story. It was an interesting concept that fell far short in delivery.

In the end this film became tedious to watch. Long dialogues that were difficult to understand and make out through the thick accent of the main actress -Gergana Mellin - and her portrayal of the character. No doubt she is a good actress and her theatre experience showed through, but something went very wrong in the volley of scenes where she relays important information about the story that just get lost. Perhaps it was a technical issue - either way, it just ended up being boring to try and figure out.

I also think there was a severe lack of build-up to some of the pivotal parts in the film. They just seemed to happen without any drama associated with them, and were gone as soon as they arrived. This led to a linear experience watching this film. There was nothing to get excited about, scared at, or have any particular emotional response to.

The ending also left a lot to be desired. Again, there was no build up or anticipation and it just happened fairly much as expected.

There are other points that detract from the enjoyment of watching this film, but I can't be bothered going in to them.

It is a shame. There were brilliant aspects such as the visuals, then the abysmal application of story telling. This is not a film I would want to watch again, which it could have been with a little more thought going in to telling the story.

Okay, I can understand that this is a "slow-burn" movie. It was a really long setup, but the guy was cute and the setting/scenery was pretty cool. The trailer piqued my interest and the poster was cool.

Two thirds into the movie and things started to shake...but I had NO idea what was going on! Either the lady's accent was too heavy, or she was chanting something ritualistic in another language, I just couldn't understand anything. Whatever was going on in the tape recorder was also impossible to understand. Even the subtitles just said "unintelligible" and "unclear" (I sh@t you NOT)--what's the point of having subtitles if THEY can't even understand what's being said?! (Plus, the screen went too-dark-to-see-anything in the middle of a scene and you have no idea what's happening! Grr.)

The one part I did understand set up some really creepy possibilities. At one point the lady leans against a window and taps out something in Morse code on the frame. She says, "I love this old house. It is always talking to me." Then the creep-factor disappears because the guy has to explain that he got a medal for learning Morse code in the scouts...and that's it.

And I JUST realized, I don't think anyone at any point in the movie said ANYTHING about opening or closing your eyes! @#%$^*&%!!!

If you understood this movie, PLEASE reply and explain it to me. I'm going to try again with the sound blasting and subtitles on all the way through. I Googled all over the place to see if someone else had figured it out, but came up with nothing. I really want to understand what's going on here. I shouldn't have to work this hard to figure out a movie!

NOTE TO DIRECTOR: Please just do it again. Leave the picture alone, just remix the audio to make the sound more "intelligible" for the subtitling company (dubstep, anyone?). DANG, I really want to like this!