It Needs Eyes

Horror has few constants, but an enduring fear of emerging technology likely won’t go anywhere. Ringu and even Evil Dead played around with the innate evil of analog technologies, and the turn of the century saw smartphones and the internet (We’re All Going to the World’s Fair) rendered with all the killer instinct of Michael Myers or Freddy Krueger. Technology is scary, and we’re all just primitive folk pretending we’re sophisticated enough to grapple with the new technologies we’re so quick and eager to adopt. We’re not. Especially teenagers, and that includes Rowan (Raquel Lebish) in Zack Ogle and Aaron Pagniano’s It Needs Eyes.

For what it’s worth, I’m personally opposed to contemporary efforts to age-restrict more content online, though I’m simultaneously aware that, largely, the internet is a terrible place, and it’s doing considerable damage to young adults. Rowan, sequestered in a remote resort town after an unknown trauma, spends all her time online. Her social media feeds are largely of the expository variety—influencer videos incredulously about drug addiction and procurement—though the old internet mantra remains true. After five minutes online, you’ll probably see a beheading. In this case, it’s a violent death on Fake Reddit.

Rowan remains transfixed by the digital realm, and her unconstrained scrolling soon leads her to Fish Tooth, videos of a mysterious girl who’s gone missing. Elements of Chris Stuckman’s Shelby Oaks come into play, though without quite as explicit a found footage motif. Rowan is obsessed, doing whatever she can to unravel the mystery she’s uncovered.

Credit where credit is due. It Needs Eyes, despite its small budget, postures as much more expensive than it was. Performances are grounded and affecting, especially Isadora Leiva as Alex, while Ogle and Pagniano regularly augment static scenes with inventive camerawork and ingenious visual flourishes, like a computer screen reflected in Rowan’s eyes.

The lore, a kind of coastal, Gen-Z creepypasta, is remarkably spooky, too, with It Needs Eyes playing with more straightforward horror tropes alongside hypnotic, elevated touches. Weird is good, and It Needs Eyes gets plenty weird. The coastal setting helps. Beach horror is great horror.

Still, It Needs Eyes, despite its strengths, never quite reaches the upper echelons of cautionary digital horror, spinning its gears a bit too often, though it’s as honest and earnest an effort as I’ve seen. Ogle and Pagniano’s collaborative feature is mysterious, haunting, weird, and scary where it counts most. That’s worth plenty of cache, especially in the indie horror scene. So, give it a shot, and let It Needs Eyes’ rabbit hole seduce you, too.

Summary

A spooky Gen-Z Creepypasta. Go, indie horror, go!

Categorized: Reviews