''My Little Eye'' is a 2002
horror film
Horror is a film genre that seeks to elicit physical or psychological fear in its viewers. Horror films often explore dark subject matter and may deal with Transgressive art, transgressive topics or themes. Broad elements of the genre include Mo ...
directed by
Marc Evans
Marc Evans (born 1960) is a Welsh director of film and television, whose credits include the films ''House of America'', ''Resurrection Man (film), Resurrection Man'' and ''My Little Eye''.
Biography
Evans was born in 1960 in Cardiff, Wales. H ...
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
Reality television is a genre of television programming that documents purportedly unscripted real-life situations, often starring ordinary people rather than professional actors. Reality television emerged as a distinct genre in the early 1990s ...
shows such as ''
Big Brother''. The title refers to the guessing game
I spy
I spy is a guessing game where one player (the ''spy'' or ''it'') chooses an object within sight and announces to the other players that "I spy with my little eye something beginning with...", naming the first letter of the object. Other players a ...
.
Plot
Five contestants, Matt (Sean Cw Johnson), Emma (
Laura Regan), Charlie (
Jennifer Sky
Jennifer Sky is a former American actress and model. She has had roles in ''Buffy the Vampire Slayer'' in 1997, ''General Hospital'' (1997–1998), '' Xena: Warrior Princess'' in 1999, and starred as Cleopatra, the title character in ''Cleopatra ...
), Danny (
Stephen O'Reilly) and Rex (
Kris Lemche
Kris Lemche (born February 23, 1978) is a Canadian actor.
Career
At 17 years old, Kris Lemche answered a newspaper casting call and won a role on the Disney series '' Flash Forward''.
Abandoning plans to study biochemistry in university, Lemc ...
), 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 a man from her past and the food packages arrive containing a letter that claims Danny's grandfather has died, and a gun with five bullets.
One night, a man named Travis Patterson (
Bradley Cooper
Bradley Charles Cooper (born January 5, 1975) is an American actor and filmmaker. He is the recipient of various accolades, including a British Academy Film Award and three Grammy Awards. In addition, he has been nominated for twelve Acade ...
) 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 recognize 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 and Danny discovers his backpack outside covered in blood and shredded to pieces. The contestants assume he was attacked by an 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.
Emma discovers her underwear among Danny's belongings and confronts him, 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, while Danny overhears.
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
The Global Positioning System (GPS) is a satellite-based hyperbolic navigation system owned by the United States Space Force and operated by Mission Delta 31. It is one of the global navigation satellite systems (GNSS) that provide geol ...
unit from Travis' bag and his
laptop
A laptop computer or notebook computer, also known as a laptop or notebook, is a small, portable personal computer (PC). Laptops typically have a Clamshell design, clamshell form factor (design), form factor with a flat-panel computer scree ...
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
In cryptography, encryption (more specifically, encoding) is the process of transforming information in a way that, ideally, only authorized parties can decode. This process converts the original representation of the information, known as plain ...
beta site, that requires a $50,000 fee to access, and displays a web page with their pictures and betting
odds
In probability theory, odds provide a measure of the probability of a particular outcome. Odds are commonly used in gambling and statistics. For example for an event that is 40% probable, one could say that the odds are or
When gambling, o ...
. The group decides they will leave the next morning, though Rex and Emma go up to the roof to set off a
flare
A flare, also sometimes called a fusée, fusee, or bengala, bengalo in several European countries, is a type of pyrotechnic that produces a bright light or intense heat without an explosion. Flares are used for distress signaling, illuminatio ...
. While Charlie and Matt remain in the house, Matt asks a camera if he should kill her, before suffocating her with a plastic bag.
Later, while Emma is sleeping, Rex comes downstairs and is decapitated with an axe by Matt. Matt awakens Emma and brings her up to the attic, telling her he is being chased and the others are dead. He then makes advances on Emma, who refuses, and attempts to rape her, before she stabs him in the back and runs off.
Emma runs outside and finds a police officer, who handcuffs her inside the car and enters the house. An injured Matt then crawls out, begging the cop 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 but is shot in the back with a rifle by the cop.
Matt and the cop sit in the kitchen discussing the setup they created with Travis for their high paying clients who want to witness the murders. When the cop says there are always "five suckers" to play the game with, Matt corrects him to four, and is then shot in the head. The cop then leaves, talking to Travis over the radio, while Emma is seen locked in a small room, unable to escape. As she collapses screaming, the cameras filming all shut off, one by one.
Cast
* Sean Cw Johnson as Matt
*
Kris Lemche
Kris Lemche (born February 23, 1978) is a Canadian actor.
Career
At 17 years old, Kris Lemche answered a newspaper casting call and won a role on the Disney series '' Flash Forward''.
Abandoning plans to study biochemistry in university, Lemc ...
as Rex
*
Stephen O'Reilly as Danny
*
Laura Regan as Emma
*
Jennifer Sky
Jennifer Sky is a former American actress and model. She has had roles in ''Buffy the Vampire Slayer'' in 1997, ''General Hospital'' (1997–1998), '' Xena: Warrior Princess'' in 1999, and starred as Cleopatra, the title character in ''Cleopatra ...
as Charlie
*
Nick Mennell as The Cop/Pete
*
Bradley Cooper
Bradley Charles Cooper (born January 5, 1975) is an American actor and filmmaker. He is the recipient of various accolades, including a British Academy Film Award and three Grammy Awards. In addition, he has been nominated for twelve Acade ...
as Travis Patterson
Home media
''My Little Eye'' is available on DVD from Universal Pictures 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 generally positive reviews and holds 70% on
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...
based on 23 reviews, with an average score of 5.4/10.
See also
*
List of films featuring surveillance
There is a significant body of films that feature surveillance
Surveillance is the monitoring of behavior, many activities, or information for the purpose of information gathering, influencing, managing, or directing. This can include obser ...
References
External links
*
Interview with director Marc Evans
{{Marc Evans
2000s slasher films
British slasher films
2002 films
2002 horror films
Working Title Films films
StudioCanal films
Films about snuff films
Films directed by Marc Evans
Films about death games
Films about security and surveillance
Films set in country houses
Films with screenplays by James Watkins
2000s English-language films
2000s British films
2000s American films
2000s Canadian films
2000s French films
American slasher films
Canadian slasher films
French slasher films
English-language horror films