The Sight

Although billed as a 'TV movie' this screams out that it was a pilot for a tv series. There are some reasonable 'make you jump' moments and some creepiness, but this is a supernatural drama rather than a horror show or even tense thriller. Whilst the plot 'twists' in the main story were obviously signposted, the final references to a whole new layer of plot showed promise. Shame that it doesn't seem to have been picked up as a series for that to be delved in to - with luck, there will be at least a second 'movie' to wrap up that 'ghosts of the ghosts', matrix type of thing that they seemed to be heading for...

The American successful architect Michael Lewis (Andrew McCarthy) travels to London with his partner and friend, the builder Jake (Kevin Tighe), to refurbish an old hotel. Michael is having successive nightmares, and once in London, he realizes that twenty-one spirits are trying to contact him to solve murders of a serial killer. Michael, with the support of Jake, Detective Pryce (Amanda Redman) and the ghosts, try to avoid the ninth crime and find the serial-killer.

I saw "The Sight" on video, and it seems to be a pilot of a series, since the story has a "hook" for a sequel. If this film is a pilot, I would like to know where I can find the series. The story is a kind of supernatural mystery movie in the same line of "Haunted", "The Others", "The Sixth Sense" and "El Espinazo del Diablo", and I really liked it. There are some flaws in the screenplay, like for example when Michael pays a visit to the lawyer in the burned building with his friend Jake, or why the ghosts do not simply tell him who the killer is, but anyway it is an enjoyable entertainment, working perfectly on video or DVD and being a promising TV series. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Visões" ("Visions")

Note: On 16 November 2022, I saw this film Again.

Found this film to be quite enjoyable, considering it dealt with the spirit world and spirits that need a place called home. There is a serial killer loose and Andrew McCarthy,(Michael Lewis),"The Orphan King",'05, gets himself involved with the restoring of a very old Mansion and opens up boxes which contain all kinds of problems he has to face. Michael eventually gets assistance from Detective Pryce,(Amanda Redman),"Sexy Beast",2000, who resents Michael and thinks he is nuts and needs a shrink to solve his vision problems. If you like tales about the supernatural and spirit world this is a good film for you.

I enjoyed this movie. The cinematography did add to the eerie feeling, and helped create suspense, although a bit overly used at times. The waviness of the very first scene in the film started to get on my nerves very quickly. That wasn't a good sign for being the first few minutes of the movie. All in all however, the style in which this was filmed really did add to the enjoyment of the movie. The story was good, and the screenplay was decent, some dialog seemed clunky, that might have been the acting.

It obviously was a pilot for a never to be seen TV show, which might have turned out to be REALLY bad if it had made it on the air. It's too bad that it couldn't have been slightly tweaked to get rid of the foreshadowing for future episodes at the end, filmed it in widescreen with at least one good actor, and this could have been a pretty good movie at the box office.

Now for the criticism...the movie really didn't seem to flow, it was kind of tumbling around, then finally got to a point, which was a pretty good twist at the end that made the movie worth while. However there are some rough times getting to the end. My biggest complaint, (I seem to be disagreeing with a lot of reviewers on here with this one;) THE ACTING WAS AWFUL! There wasn't a good actor to be found in that whole film, I think that "Isobel" was pretty good, but I might be biased because I think she is gorgeous! (I don't care if she is a ghost, I'd peek too!) Now when Andrew McCarthy is the best actor of the bunch, i mean Andrew McCarthy! This guy helped make movies like Less then Zero..Uhm..Less then Zero! The guy can't act his way out of a wet paper sack, but some of the "Brittish" cops managed to do a worse job.

If you want to watch a great show with the same idea but is carried out MUCH better, watch "Medium" ,Patricia Arquette's somewhat wooden acting is balanced out by the rest of the cast! OK so there you have it, this movie excelled at mediocrity.

This isn't a stand out film, but I caught on late night TV, and I was hooked enough to stay awake the couple of hours that this film took to watch.

The acting is good, the story feels original (even though there's nothing particularly special about it).

It feels like the movie length premier of a brand new supernatural series (think the Dead Zone). There are hints that there's more to the story than we get to see in this film, not a bad thing, but I'm at a loss as to why you'd hint so clearly at there being more stories than the one we're shown, if you had no intention of telling them.

Worth a couple of hours if you catch it on TV, or pick it up as a weekly rental. Don't buy it.