SEE NO EVIL

A group of petty criminals is transported to the Blackwell Hotel to carry out the building's renovation as part of the socially useful work program: the reward for the work done will be one less month to serve in prison. The young criminals are accompanied by officers Anders and Williams; the latter was attacked years earlier by a gigantic psychopath who had killed his colleague and amputated his arm before escaping. Soon, the group of young people will realize that they are not alone in that building and that someone is spying on them through holes in the walls and false mirrors: that someone is Jacob, the killer who had attacked officer Williams and now hides within the walls of that dilapidated hotel. They say that the eyes are the mirror of the soul; and this is the murderous philosophy that drives the acts of the mad psychopath portrayed by the colossal wrestler Kane (stage name for Glen Jacobs), a moralizing killer accustomed to recognizing in people's eyes their sinful deeds. And who could be more tainted by sin than a group of young delinquents devoted to dealing and shoplifting? Thus, the cannon fodder will be served to the killer on a silver platter, so rich in young and appetizing victims devoted to sin, to sweeten the now worn-out tradition of the teen slasher. "The Eye Collector" (original title "See No Evil"), the first film produced by WWE, an international wrestling federation, attempts to revive the slasher movie genre by introducing an absolute star of the most famous and beloved spectacle sport in the world as the film's antagonist; and it is precisely the figure of the psychopath Jacob Goodnight that is the central engine and the most successful aspect of this little film. The giant Kane has the face and physique du rôle perfect for portraying a murderous monster, with rough and brutal manners, the result of a childhood spent at the mercy of a crazy and castrating mother, obsessed with religion and devoted to extreme punitive education towards her son; a relationship at times symbiotic capable of adding a new tassel to the work of deconstruction of the American family, begun already in the films of the 60s. The figure of the killer Jacob is certainly spot-on and fascinating, albeit not very original (the more seasoned viewer will recognize clear nods to Norman Bates of "Psycho", to Leatherface of "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" and even to Carrie White of "Carrie"), as well as nuanced between the cruel/brutal and the pathetic; and indeed it is noticeable how the entire story has been built exclusively around the character of the villain portrayed by Kane, since the rest of the characters do not manage to escape the canons of the slasher movie stereotype and caricature (there's the arrogant bully, the nerd computer expert, the animal rights activist who ended up in jail for defending just causes, the supposed lesbian, the femme fatale...). Even the screenplay of debutant Dan Madigan is full of clichés that the experienced viewer will easily recognize, often anticipating events and jokes. It will then be clear that "The Eye Collector" does not stand out from the crowd either for originality, or for narrative construction and character delineation. What will then save this film? In addition to the already mentioned character of the killer, one can appreciate an excessive use of gratuitous violence that often leads to more explicit gore: from the numerous scenes in which Jacob gouges out the eyes of the victims, to people nailed, torn apart by stray dogs, hooked, even reaching a scene in which a cell phone is made to be swallowed until suffocation. In short, it does not reach splatter, but in "The Eye Collector" the blood flows copiously. Then, the good set designs by Michael Rumpf, consisting of the gloomy hotel, well exploited in all its decadent and sometimes Gothic architectural charm; and the direction of Gregory Dark, author of some music videos and numerous porn films, characterized by a meritorious use of camera virtuosity and a marked taste for rhythm. In conclusion, "The Eye Collector" is a slasher like many others, made exclusively for the purpose of launching a sports star (Kane) into the world of cinema. Entertaining and with the merit of knowing how to entertain, yes, but substantially also rather useless.