It’s a slowburn, but at least there’s a payoff at the end of the mystery thriller Open Your Eyes.
Jason (Ry Barrett) is a screenwriter on deadline. Alone in his darkened apartment, he stares at the screen – classic writer’s block. There’s something “off”. But we aren’t sure what it is. It’s too quiet. What’s going on? Eventually, he gets going on the screenplay and writes up a storm.
Speaking of quiet, not a word is spoken for the first 6 minutes, and we don’t see any other person (only an ominous kitty cat) until 30 minutes in. This is a hard trick to pull off, and the film initially drags with not much action, apart from the aforementioned kitty cat and some kind of creepy, stinky goo that is oozing from his wall.
What keeps us watching is wanting to know where this is going. And where is everyone?
And then Lisa (Joanna Saul) shows up at the door. She’s come to borrow coffee and says she’s been a neighbor for a while, but this is Jason’s first time seeing her. She is super attractive and quite mysterious and, man, is he happy to see someone.
I will not reveal any spoilers, but this is where the film starts to get interesting. In a bit of a rip-off from The Shining, Jason’s hard work at the laptop may or may not be worth his time. Slowly, director/writer Greg A. Sager allows some layers to be peeled. We are given more information, but we also question what bits can be trusted as “real” and what is in the deteriorating mind of Jason.
The answer may not be so black and white
I have recently learned to calibrate my expectations when it comes to low budget Indie films. You’d be surprised how many of them have sound quality that’s not as good as an iPhone video. But Open Your Eyes has excellent production values: it’s well shot, the sound is good, the music is good. Joanna Saul is particularly good.
If you stick with it, it has an interesting conclusion – not so much a whiz, bang Shyamalan twist, but almost a gentle, empathetic answer to all the questions we have. Or at least most of them.
Open Your Eyes is available on DVD, Blu-ray and Out now on iTunes, Apple TV On Demand, Vimeo On Demand | 2 ½ out of 4 Stars | Reviewed by Kyle Osborne
