Red Eye

Dir: Wes Craven

2005

**

Wes Craven's 2005 Red Eye was a woeful departure from greatness. Craven hadn't had much success over the last few years as a director, with 1997's Scream 2 being the last hit he'd had. It seems he was happier being an executive producer, much to the disappointment of horror fans. 2005 saw Craven release two films as director, the disappointing Cursed and Red Eye. Cursed was a major flop witch left fans of the director in unhappy bemusement. Red Eye however clearly had a bigger budget and had a fair bit of publicity. It was hyped as being a return to form for the director and his first intense action crime/thriller. Sadly, it ended up being a predictable mess. Red Eyes sees the most convoluted crime plot ever to have been committed to celluloid. To be completely fair, Wes Craven did not write the film, it was written by Carl 'Remake' Ellsworth, one of Hollywood's least talented, but that said, Craven's direction was very average. Rachel McAdams and Cillian Murphy are both quite good in their roles and do well with what they'd been given but not even an Oscar-worthy performance could have distracted from the fact that the story was not just implausible, but down-right ridiculous. I like ridiculous at the best of times, it can lend itself quite well to a comedy, romance or sci-fi but when you want to make a thriller full of suspense and intrigue it is best to leave ridiculous well alone. I'm guessing the story took place in an airplane because of its limitations, plus it could play with people’s fear of flying and claustrophobia. None of these elements are used in an effective way and it looks like everyone is sitting on a giant prop, which of course they were. When writing a story about a particular situation you have to use the unique surroundings to the advantage of your plot but the screenplay for Red Eye makes me wonder if Carl Ellsworth has actually ever been on an airplane in his life.