FrightFest Movie Haiku - Red Eye

www.redeye-themovie.com


Dir: Wes Craven


Cast: Rachel McAdams, Cillian Murphy, Brian Cox, Laura Johnson


They meet on a plane

he wants to bomb her hotel

boo, it's a 12A


A 12A certificate showing at a horror film festival - just what is going on? If you didn’t know any better – or if you’ve only seen the first half of the film’s trailer – then you could be forgiven for thinking that Red Eye is going to shape up as one of those rom-coms, with Lisa (McAdams) and Jackson (Murphy) first meeting at the check-in desk and then discovering that they’re coincidentally seated together on the same flight. But of course with Wes Craven at the controls this bourgeoning relationship is about to hit turbulence – yes, Jackson is a few bread rolls short of an in-flight meal (it’s in the eyes you know), and Daddy’s going to die unless Lisa does exactly what he tells her. You see, Lisa is responsible for running a swanky hotel, and there's an important guest staying there who Jackson wants to blow-up, for reasons unclear. Unfortunately this is where Red Eye became Shut Eye for me, and the next thing I knew relations had soured to the point where Lisa was giving Jackson her pen - and it sure wasn’t for the purposes of getting his number. After the confined setting of the aircraft, the final part of the film - back on terra firma - is less successful, dispensing with the cat-and-mouse antics between the two leads in favour of more wham-bam action scenes, but at least Brian Cox is given a bit of screen time. Where you might have expected the director of Scream to throw in a boatload of red herrings, Red Eye is surprisingly tight and uncomplicated, and is certainly Craven’s most mainstream film to date. And with a running time of under 90 minutes it’s not going to give you DVT either.

soulmining rating: ***