Fear the Dark: Michael D. Coffey’s ‘ONE EYE OPEN’ – Movie Review

Michael D. Coffey’s One Eye Open gave me hope that horror is not all artsy, but it doesn’t have to be nonstop gore. Sometimes the story saves everything about a film, earning it the rank of legendary in my eyes. However, the film has not made its way up further in the ranks of films I love. One Eye Open will not push it into my top 20. Possibly the most thrilling story I never thought I was going to like. The film definitely surprised me beyond what the trailer suggested.

Let’s get into the review

Synopsis

A recent college graduate house-sitting for her ailing grandfather finds herself caught in a deadly cat-and-mouse game with thieves who become haunted by something protecting her in the mysterious mansion.

The Rundown

One Eye Open is billed as a thriller, and I refute that. Thrillers should keep you involved before the story picks up.  One Eye Open did not take long at all to start the story; after the opening credits, all hell instantly breaks loose. Sometimes you think things could really happen, and breaking scares us somewhere deep inside, a place you never really want to visit. A dark place beyond our comprehension, you might say it snuck up from the bottom

The story is completely eye-opening (get it?). There are several points of the movie that were obviously unbelievable, and I won’t lie, that thought his me at first. I thought I was going to be watching something silly or boring, like most of the movies in this drama. Horror has become too “artsy,” like what we see in A24 movies. At first, I thought be a long, senseless story, so it is nothing like you would see coming at your home, but you lock your door in fear for the most part. One Eye Open catches all the normal scenes in horror, such as a shower scene. Why? Because it worked to their advantage with fun and common tropes.

My Takeaway

The best part of this movie is that although someone is living in this home, she has a lot of ghostly friends with tragic moments of death, and they are stuck in purgatory. That alone made the story much different and exciting. You can taste the tension in the end while trying to escape.  You could see where someone missed a sync, and that really didn’t happen in this film’s death scenes. The bodies lay sadly together until they got a call to protect their grandchildren from the underworld.

Check out the trailer below:

In The End

I found a film that gets into your psyche and lives there rent-free, always looking over your shoulder. The scenario, ghosts show up when needed the most, watching their grandchild being attacked, and you decided to leave your body and give, and the thugs are the center of the action, whether you tie someone to a chair seems left worrisome when dealing with people who broke into your home unprepared. Always look over your shoulder when you sense danger, and take a ride with an actual take-home.

Be safe out there

 

About Craig Lucas

I hail from rural PA where there isn't much to do except fixate on something. Horror was, and still is my fixation. I have 35 years of horror experience under my belt, I love the horror community and it loves me.

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