Red Eye Movie Review: 

Welcome back to the seventh annual Halloween special. Today I was going to be talking about a phone that you might not normally a tribute with the Halloween holiday. Some might not even call this a horror movie. On paper, it’s certainly an action thriller. But I’m gonna talk about why red eye is a movie that I don’t mind watching around the October season.

I saw the movie back in 2005 in theaters. I still have my movie ticket for that. I have most of my tickets saved all the way back to 2001. It’s a pretty big scrapbook. It stars Rachel McAdams and Killian Murphy who meet together at an airport because their flight is delayed. and they seem to hit it off. Like maybe they could even be in a relationship together. They talked for a while at a bar before going their separate ways. Until she discovers that they’re actually seated right next to each other. Once the plane takes off, everything seems to be going smoothly. Until he asks her to make a phone call.

A very specific phone call. You see as it turns out he’s got a guy outside of her dad’s house who’s going to kill her father unless she uses her position of power at a hotel to switch a politician to a different room. Because in that room it’ll be a lot easier to kill him. 

So what do I enjoy watching red eye around Halloween? Well for one this special has never been about Halloween the holiday movies if that was all I ever talked about I run out of movies really quick. It just has to be a scary film a tense film and red eyes certainly that.

But this movie secret weapon is the fact that it was directed by Wes Craven. One of the masters of horror. the man who directed hills have eyes, a nightmare on Elm Street,  and scream. If any other director had made this, it probably would have felt like a straight forward thriller and it could have been good. But with Wes Craven behind the camera. This is a horror movie.

The first act of the film feels almost like a romantic comedy. This couple that meets at these airports and they actually seem to get along really well they have great chemistry. He charms her but they go their separate ways because you can tell that she’s just not ready for that.

And so watching the movie. I know what’s going to happen I know that he’s going to turn on her and he’s going to be the villain. But because of these two actors and their great chemistry. I actually feel kind of bad, like I was like well you know they would actually be really good together socks that he’s kind of a psychopath. And there are hints to that early on inline where he tries to shut down this bad guy who’s running everybody’s day. 

 That shot of his blue eyes is so quick. but it’s so important for his character because you know right then and there got that guys can do something. And the second act of the film is this tense cat and mouse game on this airplane. And what makes it so fun is that Rachel McAdams is very smart and clever. As a hero she makes choices that in the moment your like good that was good.

It also doesn’t give you a lot of time to refresh. I was actually talking about this with a writer friend of mine that sometimes in thrillers they give the hero something to do like every 10 minutes. But in Red Eye movie it seems like it’s every few minutes she’s dealing with another complication. But what makes the movie special is that Killian Murphy is just as smart as she is. And he’s able to see through all of her attempts to get out of something.

And the writers employed a technique. That I’m not even sure if they knew they were doing this but it is brilliant. Oftentimes with a thriller especially one that takes place in a contained period of time you need your characters to not do certain things otherwise the movie’s gonna end. If the wrong person notice is that this intense conversation is happening on this plane, the movie is no longer as interesting.

So that’s hard from a writing perspective and you can fall into a lot of plot holes and there are some in this movie. But the reason it works for me is because they decided to give it the main villain of the movie. The same problem the writers had while approaching this, I’m assuming, how do we keep this girl here without making anyone else notice that this guy is trying to force her to allow them to commit this act.

The villain has the same problem. He’s got to make sure that nobody sees anything. He’s got to make sure the phones always work. He’s got to make sure that she’s in the right place at the right time. So the writers’ problems with the screenplay are the villains’ problems. It’s a really brilliant way of solving that issue. You make your bill and more interesting that way too. Because now he’s doing probably what I’m assuming the writers did when they were at page one. How do we make this work? and that’s in genius.

Now I do have some issues with the movie. In a lot of it has to do with some unnecessary humor the movie gets rather cute see at times really weird. That it does too there is over-exaggerated acting sometimes. Like there’s this couple early on that are so horrible to this clerk. And they have a back and forth and it becomes a bit of a little subplot with this Clark. And I just I don’t find it necessary to the film at all.

But it’s 85 minutes it’s already pretty short. So you can’t cut too much else out. Or like when Rachel McAdams is walking on to the plane and this one guy sees her and think she’s really gorgeous and so we’ve got to make himself look as handsome as possible little moments like that are just completely unnecessary.

And they feel exaggerated and larger than life. Whereas a lot of the movie feels more tense and a little more realistic. Even though it does ask you to accept certain things in the hopes that you’ll be invested in this thriller. Moments like that really don’t work for me and they actually make the film a lot less tense than it could be.

But the third act as soon as she is free and she’s running around and he’s following her and they’re trapped in this house and he’s got a knife this is a  slasher movie Wes Craven uses all of his tricks now. And so like I said on paper it’s an action thriller but to me red eye has always been a horror thriller.

As a late period, Wes Craven’s movie red eye is one of my favorites of his. I don’t think it’s great. I just think it’s a really fun thriller. I’m going to give red eye a B. Guys thank you so much as always for reading my reviews. see you next time with another movie review.