Movies
The Eye 3 (V)
Considering the stupidity of most of the other techniques described in the film, I guess we should be thankful that the pair decided to just give us one final project as a summation of their ideas rather than 8 more uneven films in this series.”
OK, lets just clear up any confusion right off the bat. THE EYE 3 has a lot of names—alternatively known as THE EYE: INFINITY and THE EYE 10, it’s been around for a few years. Technically, it’s the third entry in The Pang Brother’s saga of ghosts and those that can see them. The 10 that the film’s original title refers to are the methods in which one can view a ghost. And those methods are what make up the rice paper thin plot that the Pang’s are trying to pass off on their audience.
The previous two EYE films had little in common tonally. The first film in the series was a supernatural thriller about a woman whose cornea transplant leaves her haunted by the spirit world. The second film was a drama about a pregnant woman who—upon deciding to commit suicide—can suddenly see the dead. THE EYE 3 references both of these methods as “ways to see the dead”. So, what THE EYE 3 is, is an explanation and visualization of the remaining other 8 methods. Methods, which range from the obvious: “Use a Ouija Board”, to the absurd: “Bend over and look between your legs”. And if that last method causes you to seriously consider the nature of this film, and then you’re half way to understanding the intentions of THE EYE 3, even if you ultimately don’t find them entertaining.
In reality The Pang Brothers set up their vision of a third EYE film right from the opening credit sequence. The film begins with a Buddhist Séance in which a possessed girl is levitated before the terrified monks. Suddenly her snakelike tongue shoots out of her mouth and smacks the monks in the head. The film then flash cuts to a group of teenagers snapping pictures on a road trip to Thailand. The title cards and music are a poppy-disco beat with a heavy 70’s retro vibe that feels like it could have been jacked from any Pam Grier/Jack Hill collaboration. It’s in less than 5 minutes that we understand that The Pang Brothers are not going to provide us with much horror in this horror movie.
One of the vacationing friends discovers the book about the 10 Ways to Encounter Ghosts and the group decides to take it upon themselves to test each method (at least the practical ones, since cornea transplants and pregnancy are more difficult to achieve). They set up each event—Ouija Board, Hide and Seek, Offer Food—in the hopes to see the unrestful spirits walking the earth, and for the most part they’re successful, until one of the group—Kofei—disappears. Now, the friends can’t seem to turn off the ghost sightings as they’re haunted by the likes of opening umbrellas and phantom basketballs.
The ridiculousness of THE EYE 3 makes the film feel more like a live action Manga than a standard entry in the Asian Horror lexicon. More akin to films like the 2002 Korean movie SEX IS ZERO than titles like RINGU or JU-ON. It’s jarring in the same sense that you might imagine if Eli Roth decided to turn over the reigns on a third HOSTEL film to the Wayans Brothers. What I mean there is that THE EYE 3 has potty humor and goofy expressions and that basketball attack sequence I mentioned before. It’s just ludicrous. And the insanity is blazing headstrong toward a climax that is beyond comprehension as two of the friends enter the spirit world to save Kofei only to discover just what bodily functions repel spirits best.
It’d be easy to totally write off THE EYE 3 as a colossal failure in changing the nature of the series. But, moments of the film work, even if it’s only the visual splendor of the filmmaking on display. The film also feels hurried, as if The Pang Brothers wanted to cram as much information as possible into 86 minutes. I also found it interesting that they simply wrote the first two films off as just 2 of the 10 Ways to Encounter Ghosts. Considering the stupidity of most of the other techniques described in the film, I guess we should be thankful that the pair decided to just give us one final project as a summation of their ideas rather than 8 more uneven films in this series.
Pulitzer Prize-winning author Daniel Kraus took the literary world by storm back in 2023 with the release of his hit novel Whalefall. A terrifying yet intimate survival thriller with mythological undertones, the book was almost immediately bombarded with offers from movie studios wanting to adapt its claustrophobic imagery to the big screen.
Fast forward to June of 2026, and we finally got our first glimpse at Brian Duffield’s long-awaited adaptation of Whalefall, starring Austin Abrams as our unfortunate lead who gets swallowed alive by a sperm whale. While this two-and-a-half-minute teaser only covers the beginning of the story, it’s already been making waves online (and in-person at select 4DX promotional screenings) as one of the most stressful cinematic experiences of the year.
In fact, my own wife had to cover her eyes and exclaim, “You’re definitely not dragging me to watch this one” when we saw the whale’s jaws begin to close in on Abrams, with this incident alone already leaving me convinced that this will likely be one of the biggest genre hits of the year. With that in mind, I’d like to invite you to take a closer look at the teaser in order to break down interesting details and get a better idea of what’s in store for genre fans when the movie finally comes out this October.
Of course, as usual, don’t forget to comment below if you noticed something we didn’t!
Now, without further ado, here are five things we learned from the Whalefall trailer!
5. Austin Abrams Performed Many of His Own Stunts
Much like in his previous film, No One Will Save You, Duffield insisted that this visceral experience should be grounded by our main character’s believable reactions, regardless of the plot’s effects-heavy setup. That’s why the camera always makes sure to linger on Abrams through his diving mask, so we know that it’s really him going through this ordeal alongside the audience.
While plenty of CGI was used in order to bring this larger-than-life story to the big screen without killing our leading man, Abrams apparently insisted on performing many of his underwater stunts himself (several of which are visible in the trailer) – much to the chagrin of a worried Duffield and the flick’s stunt coordinator, Shauna Duggins.
4. The Film Seamlessly Transitions Between the California Coast and Underwater Sets
Duffield obviously wasn’t about to drag his crew out to the middle of the ocean and shoot inside a real sperm whale, but it’s reassuring to see the filmmaker blend on-location footage with the underwater tank segments and the literal belly of the whale set.
There may be plenty of CGI stitching these elements together, but the trailer shows us that only the truly impossible shots are completely digital, meaning that the filmmakers didn’t take the easy way out when it came to adapting this unique story.
3. The Whale is Only Part of the Story
Book adaptations tend to leave out inner monologues and the occasional flashback in order to streamline the narrative (which is one reason why it’s so difficult to translate Stephen King novels to the big screen), but a claustrophobic parable like Kraus’ Whalefall would get a bit dull after a while if the whole thing was entirely set within the creature’s stomach.
That’s why it’s such a relief that the trailer hints at how Duffield will also be adapting many of the book’s introspective moments chronicling our protagonist’s harsh upbringing under his troubled father. Not only do these inclusions give the audience some much-appreciated breathing room, but they also give Josh Brolin a chance to shine as a truly complicated character.
2. The Movie is Keeping the Book’s Scientific Accuracy…
While Kraus’ novel was inspired by a viral video of kayakers nearly being swallowed by a humpback whale, the writer ended up consulting with marine biologists about exactly what kind of situation might lead to a whale actually eating a human being alive.
The answer was surprisingly specific, as cetaceans are almost universally known to be friendly towards humans. However, even a gentle giant can make mistakes, and as we see in the trailer, Abrams’ unpleasant fate is more of an accident than anything else – with the massive sperm whale only trapping the poor diver in the first (and thankfully acid-free) chamber of its stomach due to a mix-up involving a giant squid.
Fortunately for the film’s special effects artists, they can now reference the first-ever footage of a real-life sperm whale chowing down on one such squid, as this freaky recording was released late last year.
1. …With a Catch!
Duffield may be doing his best to recreate the grounded (or is it submerged?) thrills of Kraus’ novel, but there are limits to what can be depicted onscreen while still guaranteeing an entertaining movie. That’s why it’s no surprise that Whalefall will take advantage of certain cinematic parlor tricks as the director tests the limits of both physics and biology so we can actually watch his movie.
For starters, the innards of the whale itself have been greatly exaggerated so there’s enough space to make out the action, and in the spirit of movies like Neil Marshall’s The Descent, there also seems to be plenty of non-diegetic lighting meant to show us what’s going on even if Abram’s character wouldn’t necessarily be able to see anything.
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