My Little Eye
| My Little Eye | |
|---|---|
 UK release poster | |
| Directed by | Marc Evans |
| Written by | David Hilton James Watkins |
| Produced by | Alan Greenspan Jane Villiers David Hilton Jon Finn |
| Starring | Sean Cw Johnson Kris Lemche Stephen O'Reilly Laura Regan Jennifer Sky Bradley Cooper |
| Cinematography | Hubert Taczanowski |
| Edited by | Marguerite Arnold |
| Music by | Bias |
Production companies | |
| Distributed by | Momentum Pictures Universal Pictures |
Release dates |
|
Running time | 95 minutes |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $3 million |
| Box office | $9 million |
My Little Eye is a 2002 British horror film directed by Marc Evans about five adults who agree to spend six months together in an isolated mansion while being filmed at all times. The idea for the film came from reality television shows such as Big Brother. The title refers to the guessing game I spy.
Plot
Five adult contestants, Matt (Sean Cw Johnson), Emma (Laura Regan), Charlie (Jennifer Sky), Danny (Stephen O'Reilly) and Rex (Kris Lemche), agree to take part in a reality webcast, where they must spend six months in a house to win $1 million. If anyone leaves, then no one wins the money. Nearing the end of the six months, tension between the contestants rises after Emma finds strange messages she believes are from someone in her distant past and the food packages arrive containing a letter that claims Danny's grandfather has died, and a revolver loaded with five bullets.
One night, a stranger named Travis Patterson (Bradley Cooper) arrives, claiming he is lost in the woods and that his GPS has died. Despite claiming to be an internet programmer, he claims to not recognise any of the contestants or ever having heard of the show. Later that night, Travis has sex with Charlie, and then secretly talks directly into a camera, to communicate with whoever is watching them.
The next morning, Travis leaves, only to have Danny discovering that his backpack outside has been covered in blood and is shredded to pieces. The contestants assume he was attacked by a wild animal but Rex believes Travis works for the people running their show and that it is all a trick to make them leave the house and forfeit the prize money.
While letting of steam, Emma discovers her underwear among Danny’s belongings and confronts him about it, unaware that Travis planted them there the previous night. Danny denies it and attempts to make peace by giving her a crudely carved wooden cat, which Emma and Charlie ridicule.
The next morning, the group finds Danny has committed suicide by hanging himself from the staircase balcony with a rope. The guests finally decide to leave, but after being unable to contact anyone via radio, decide to wait until the next morning. Rex uses the GPS unit from Travis' bag and his laptop to gain access to the internet to find out more about the show but is unable to find any evidence of their show online.
Rex is only able to find a heavily encrypted beta site, that requires a $50,000 fee to access, and displays a web page with their pictures and betting odds. The group decides they will leave the next morning, though Rex and Emma go up to the roof to set off a flare. While Charlie and Matt remain in the house, Matt talks to a camera and proceeds to suffocate Charlie with a plastic bag.
Later, while Emma is sleeping, Rex comes downstairs and is decapitated by Matt. Matt awakens Emma and brings her up to the attic, telling her he is being chased and the others are dead before he makes advances on Emma, who refuses, and attempts to rape her. Emma stabs him in the back and runs off.
Emma runs outside and finds a police officer, who handcuffs her once they are inside the car. An injured Matt then crawls out, begging the officer to let him kill Emma, since he spent six months in the house with her. Realizing they are working together, Emma escapes the car and tries to run only to be shot in the back by the officer.
Entering the house, Matt and the police officer sit in the kitchen discussing the setup they created with Travis for their high paying clients who want to witness the murders. When the officer says there are always "five suckers" to play the game with, Matt corrects him to four, and is then shot in the head by an unseen shooter.
Satisfied, the officer leaves, talking to Travis over the radio, while Emma is seen locked in a small room, unable to escape. As she collapses in despair, the cameras filming all shut off, one by one.
Cast
- Sean Cw Johnson as Matt
- Kris Lemche as Rex
- Stephen O'Reilly as Danny
- Laura Regan as Emma
- Jennifer Sky as Charlie
- Nick Mennell as The Cop
- Bradley Cooper as Travis Patterson
Home media
My Little Eye is available on DVD from MCA/Universal Home Video with most of the special features available on the Region 2 Special Edition including a filmmakers' commentary and deleted scenes. There is an audio mode "Conversations of the Company (Eavesdropping Audio Track)" which allows the viewer to listen to the radio conversations between the members of the company: Travis and "the cop". However, during this mode, the viewer cannot hear all of the dialogue of the cast in the scene. A UK release contains a 'Special Mode' where viewers see the film from the perspective of an internet subscriber, and more extra features become unlocked as the film goes on. You can watch other things going on in 'the house' in real time to what's happening in the film.
Reception
The film received polarized but positive reviews and holds 67% on Rotten Tomatoes based on 21 reviews, with an average score of 5.2/10.[1]
See also
References
- ^ "My Little Eye (2002)". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 15 June 2018.