Rating summary

Movie		2.0
Video		3.0
Audio		3.5
Extras		2.0
Overall		2.0

See No Evil Blu-ray Movie Review

The title is actually warning you not to see the film.

Reviewed by Casey Broadwater August 17, 2009

Whenever I watch a particularly bad movie, I inevitably think about all the hundreds of well- meaning, artistically honest, aspiring filmmakers who can’t get their projects off the ground and who probably die a little inside every time a film like See No Evil gets the green light. I know mainstream moviemaking is a business first, but it seems unbelievable to me that some head honcho, high on the studio totem pole, would check out the synopsis for See No Evil— religiously abused man-child idiot kills delinquent youths in abandoned hotel, starring WWE’s Kane— and give it a big, fat thumbs up. Don’t get me wrong; I love a good slasher flick. The thing is, horror fans aren’t the target audience for See No Evil—they know enough to stay away. Instead, the film is clearly gunning for those that simply don’t know any better—18 to 24 year-old males who are willing to part with their money in exchange for almost zero entertainment value. Helmed by a former porn director and featuring one of the most unoriginal plots to ever be cribbed from much better genre films, See No Evil is mindless, soulless schlock that’s never frightening or gleefully violent enough to justify its money-grubbing existence.

Whether dumb-bells, dumb blondes, or wayward brunettes, Kane is always ready for a workout.

The plot is barely worth detailing, and you’ve ever even heard of a slasher film, you’ve got a pretty good idea what to expect. If you’re thinking, “a group of idiots, trapped in a remote location, gets terrorized by an unrelenting monster” then ding, ding, ding! We have a winner! But let’s play a different game—Spin the Wheel of Stereotype and Location! Will it be horny counselors at a cursed summer camp? Cheerleaders at a slumber party? Pot-smoking, sex- having campers bivouacked in the woods? In See No Evil, eight young delinquents from the Los Angeles county jail get a chance to reduce their sentences by cleaning up a derelict hotel that’s set to be turned into a homeless shelter. The future victims are a likely bunch of troubled ingrates—drug dealers and petty thieves, a pimp and his man-hating ho, a shoplifting valley girl, a computer whiz and, oddly enough, a tofu-loving PETA activist who becomes the brunt of one too many jokes. Property owner Margaret Gaines (Cicily Polson) gives the punks a rundown of the hotel’s storied history, and when she mentions secret passageways and double mirrors, the set-up for this genre gimcrack is complete. Lurking behind every mirror, hulking through corridors, and peering through expertly placed peepholes, serial killer Jacob Goodnight (Glenn “Kane” Jacobs) has his eyes out for young sinners.

Yet of all the recent attempts to create a new horror icon, Jacob Goodnight is one of the most deliberately overwrought. The herky-jerky flashback sequences reveal a young man who is caged and forced to look at pornography by his religious nut-job mother, who conditions her son, in a Frailty-inspired plot device, to be the sinner-killing Hand-of-God. Her “Do you see the sin? ” mantra trains Jacob to pluck out his victim’s eyes, which are, after all, the windows to the soul. Less is always more when it comes to slasher origin stories—see Rob Zombie’s Halloween reboot for how not to do it—and See No Evil strains desperately to give its dim-witted antagonist a back-story that overzealously explains his eye-gouging lunacy. Big-boned and standing seven feet tall, Kane is an undeniably intimidating physical presence. Unlike other horror baddies, however, he doesn’t have the emotion-concealing luxury of hiding behind a stoic mask. His thoughts are immediately identifiable in way too obvious, over-the-top expressions. I can imagine the director yelling, “Okay, make a mean face—no, no, no, like a big, glowering angry child. Now, wounded. Let’s see those puppy dog eyes.” He’s like Lenny from Of Mice and Men, only, instead of accidentally killing field mice, he’s impaling young troublemakers on an enormous hook. The kills—the real stars of any slasher flick—are nothing we haven’t seen before, though, and there’s a joyless quality to the film’s violence that makes for an overall dour, humdrum experience. Aren’t slashers supposed to be fun?

It seems clichéd to say that a film is cut like one long music video, but I really can’t think of any other way to put it. In one of the disc’s behind-the-scenes featurettes, director Gregory Dark proudly exclaims, “I understand the MTV audience, which is the audience for horror movies. The movie is fast-paced and fast-cut.” If you’re reading this and you’re a horror fan like me, you’re probably letting out a sad, audible sigh right about now. Like every other horror hack from the past 10 years, Dark goes on to explain that he wanted to make a gritty movie in the vein of late 1970s and early 1980s horror films. If he wanted to succeed, the first thing he could’ve done was dispense with all the music video gimmickry that clutters up the film. Cuts jump unnecessarily, the hand-cranked flashback scenes have all the subtlety of a blow to the skull, and the tilt/shift selective focus used in Jacob’s POV shots quickly gets old. Things aren’t much better thematically, as the story is a hackneyed mishmash of mother complexes, mental illness, and religion-gone- awry. One initially wonders if porn director Gregory Dark is making a statement about puritanical morality, but it becomes quickly clear that he lacks the artistic wherewithal to cut the film coherently, let alone make some sort of insight about the human condition. I don’t ask much from horror films—that they’re entertaining and well-constructed is usually enough—but See No Evil can’t seem to see past the dollar signs in its eyes.

See No Evil Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

See No Evil arrives on Blu-ray with a 1080p/AVC-encoded transfer that's nearly as dingy and joyless as the film itself. With gritty swarms of grain and a palette that's been stripped of color, the film's look isn't entirely unexpected—this is a slasher after all—but the image rarely impresses in HD. Unlike most films of this ilk, See No Evil employs a warmer tone, but that doesn't mean you'll be seeing any vivid colors. Skuzzy grays and dirty browns fill up most of the screen, with occasional splashes like the bright orange of Jacob's backlit, eyeball-filled mason jar. Black levels are slightly washed out during many scenes—you can see the grain swirling over even the deepest parts of the image—and there's a preponderancy for dimness that robs contrast and gives the image a flat, dimensionless look. Overall clarity is average—close-ups are obviously sharper than longer shots—and the finest of details often get lost to grain and/or darkness. Ugliest of all are the flashback sequences, which are nearly black and white, but feature a thin, greenish-yellow sheen to the highlights. I don't want to be too harsh—the film looks okay for what it is—but you won't be demo-ing See No Evil for friends any time soon.

See No Evil Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Lionsgate gives See No Evil their usual DTS-HD MA 7.1 surround track, and the film's audio is at least more inherently engaging than the mediocre picture quality. Dynamics are solid, with a wide range that encompasses the lowest LFE rumblings and the tinkling bells that Jacob has rigged up to every bed in the hotel. Surround channels get a bit of a workout—the hotel creaks ominously and flies buzz as harbingers of Jacob's presence—but much of the sound design revels in overly clever, style-over-substance audio tapestries filled with unnatural swooshing and creeping noises that don't emanate from the environment and only serve to add "spooky" atmosphere. Sound effects are generally crisp and brutal, from the meaty squish of a hook sinking between shoulder blades to the ripping plaster and plywood that accompany Jacob busting through a wall like the Kool- Aid man. As you might expect, channel movements aren't the most graceful, and the film beats you over the head with volume when it can't manage finesse. As a result, voices can occasionally get buried in the mix, and there were a few instances when I had to wield my remote to hear what was being said. When not embroiled in action, though, the inane dialogue is otherwise crisp and clear.

See No Evil Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Commentary by Director Gregory Dark and Writer Dan Madigan

Both participants mumble their way through the film, leaving behind a dull track that's filled with obvious comments about character motivation, pointless point-outs of what's going on, and too many "this is when we..." style remarks. Even fans of the film—the "MTV generation," according to the director—will find this track too slow and monotonous for consumption.

Commentary by Kane and Co-Executive Producer Jed Blaugrund

Likewise, Kane and Jed turn in a silence-spotted track with few real insights. Kane takes a couple stabs at exploring his character's pathology, and it's hard to tell if he's being serious or sarcastic when he explains that Jacob Goodnight is an extension of himself. It's ironic that they bring Kane in for a commentary track in the first place—he's only got one line in the film—and he doesn't have a whole lot to add to the conversation. Blaugrund controls the flow here, and it's unclear how much of a hands-on role he had in the film's on-set production. Still, he's perhaps the most articulate and cheerful of the commentators included on the disc, and so if you've really got to listen to one track, I'd recommend this one.

Do You See the Sin? The Making of See No Evil (SD, 13:02)

This is your run-of-the-mill behind the scenes documentary that features interviews with the cast and crew and offers few real insights into the filmmaking process. If I hadn't already checked IMDB, the only thing I would've learned was that the film was shot in Australia, with mostly Aussie actors doing their best California accents. There's a distinct lack of intelligence from the director and writer when talking about the film, and I basically zoned out after Gregory Dark said, "Kane brings a humanism to this human character." Okay.

Kane: Journey Into Darkness (SD, 2:59)

I don't know much about Kane or the WWE, but this seems to be a brief retrospective of the wrestler's career.

Storyboard to Film Comparison (SD, 1:21)

Here you'll find storyboards from one scene intercut with footage from the final film.

Behind the Evil: WWE Features (SD, 1:24)

These are promos that I assume were featured during WWE presentations to hype up See No Evil. They're basically talking-head interviews chopped up with rapidly cut sequences from the film, and there's nothing here that can't be found in the "making of" featurette.

See No Evil Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

You can probably tell I don't have very much good to say about See No Evil. Derivative and never actually scary, the film is an empty genre exercise that will likely only appeal to Kane fans and those who have the cash to drop $40 on pay-per-view wrestling events. The merely average audio/visual package doesn't impressive enough to warrant a purely aesthetic purchase, so I'd stay away from See No Evil unless you own a t-shirt stamped with Kane's snarling pug face.