"Five Across the Eyes" Review - Written by Anthony Thurber

Five Across the Eyes
Year: 2008
Directors: Greg Swinson, Ryan Thiessen
Studio: Anchor Bay Entertainment / Trauma One Entertainment
Stars: Jennifer Barnett, Angela Brunda, Danielle Lilley
MPAA Rating: Not Rated
Running Time: 94 Mins
Official Website: http://www.fiveacrosstheeyesmovie.com/




Before I start my review of this film, I just want to let my readers that this is one of those love or hate it films. I’ve wanted to see this film ever since reading about it last year where it screened at many film festivals across the world. This film really reminded me of “The Blair Witch Project”, where the action and horror is so intense that it gives a realistic feel to it, plus the fact it’s a film that your either going to hold in high regard or just totally hate the film, as there is no middle ground with a film like this.

Five Across the Eyes is about five teenage girls who coming home after having fun at a high school game. On their way home from the game, they take a foolish detour and accidentally hit a car. Soon, their night of fun turns into a night of terror, as the driver of that vehicle begins to stalk the five girls. Now the girls must ordeal the terror and find a way to stop the driver before they are added to her list of victims.

“Five Across the Eyes” is truly one of the most brutal and intense horror films I’ve seen this year. Not the watered down Hollywood crap. Directors Greg Swinson and Ryan Thiessen do a great job with the overall direction and pace of the film. The directors go for a more intense style ala “The Blair Witch Project”, which creates an atmosphere of fear and frightening action. Swinson and Thiessen create this atmosphere to perfection by shooting this film on DV. A good example of this was the film’s chase scenes and the way that it was shot. It makes the action and situation feel realistic. The last half-hour of the film is probably the most brutal half-hour of horror that I’ve seen this year. Their direction of their actresses was also great. They achieved in getting all the actresses to be average teenagers, while making sure that each of them are realistically terrified especially in the film’s brutal scenes. It adds to the frightening aspects of the film.

The screenplay written by Swinson was terrifying. He does a great job making the action and story, very intense. This is not seen in many horror films. One of the things that’s done really well was that the characters felt realistic from the beginning of the film until the film’s very end. I liked how he makes the teens in the film feel like average teenagers, which makes it more realistic. Swinson also goes a great job on focusing each of the girl’s psychological state of mind during the action throughout the film, as the characters are in a constant state of fear. This contributes to the intense action that goes on in the film and makes this film very terrifying. Another thing that it also does is that it makes you care for the characters that are trapped in this awful situation. Also, the violence in the story was so shocking that it makes the horror aspects of the film, very effective.

I urge that every hardcore horror fan see this film because this is what the horror genre should be, not the watered down crap that Hollywood puts out. “Five Across the Eyes” is a shocking and brutal intense ride.


Review Rating: Five Stars