'Evil Eye' film review: A whirlwind romance dredges up a mother's traumatic past
The trauma and echoes of abuse upend a mother and daughter's relationship in the mystery thriller 'Evil Eye' (streaming on Amazon Prime Video starting Oct. 13 as part of the Welcome to the Blumhouse anthology).
In short: Superstitious and traumatized mother Usha (Sarita Choudhury) is convinced by her daughter Pallavi's (Sunita Mani) relationship with her new boyfriend Sandeep (Omar Maskati).
Were it not for Usha's troubling flashbacks - that hint at a terrible event in her past - the first act of 'Evil Eye' surprisingly plays out much like a pretty conventional romance. Pallavi and Sandeep's meet-cute is actually kinda adorable. But even within this somewhat conventional formula, Usha's urgency to see her daughter engaged rings with a desperation that doesn't feel like the usual 'overbearing mom' trope.
But this gradual windup has an unfortunate side effect: 'Evil Eye' takes too long to finally take shape. The film plays too coy with its mystery - there's some vague signals that Usha has ulterior motives in pressing Pallavi to find a husband (beyond just trying to marry off her daughter). This results in a film that is a bit too comfortable as a mystery box for a bit too long. Any movie that spends too much time hinting around is a film that spends too much setting up the story. The script invests most of the first half making Usha look either paranoid or fundamentally unable to be happy for her daughter -- a better horror-mystery would more successfully seed tantalizing clues that could corroborate Usha's mounting concerns.
The contentious relationship between Usha and her daughter is the emotional core of 'Evil Eye,' but it does split the film in half for most of the movie's runtime. Usha spends her time anxiously consumed with a theory that borders on delusional, while Pallavi is in a relationship drama with a new boyfriend. Frankly, it's like they're in two different movies. And because Usha and Pallavi are on two different sides of the planet, Pallavi moves the plot ahead with her relationship with Sandeep while Usha just reacts to her daughter's fast-paced relationship from afar.
Going into the final act, Usha develops a pretty far-fetched theory about Sandeep. Thematically, Usha's desperate concern for her daughter ties in firmly with her own troubled past - specifically how the horror abuse can shade the abuse survivor's view of the world and people. But 'Evil Eye' is so entrenched in its family relationship and psychological drama that, by the time the movie takes a pretty crazy plot turn, the film simply doesn't justify the crazy twist. 'Evil Eye' is almost 100-percent grounded in the real world and its only ties to anything supernatural are pawned off as superstition -- then it does a hard 180-reversal and goes in hard with a supernatural twist that feels abrupt and unearned.
Final verdict: It's really a shame that 'Evil Eye' is such a slow boil that explodes all at once in its finale - the story's exploration of trauma deserves better than this film's poorly executed horror-mystery scaffolding.
Score: 2.5/5
'Evil Eye' is available on Amazon Prime Video on Oct. 13. This horror mystery is unrated and has a running time of 90 minutes.
