''My Little Eye'' is a 2002 British horror film directed by

Marc Evans Marc Evans (born 1963) is a Welsh director of film and television, whose credits include the films ''House of America'', '' Resurrection Man'' and ''My Little Eye''. Biography Evans was born in 1963 in Cardiff, Wales. He studied for a history ...

about five adults who agree to spend six months together in an isolated mansion while being filmed at all times. The idea for the film came from

reality television Reality television is a genre of television programming that documents purportedly unscripted real-life situations, often starring unfamiliar people rather than professional actors. Reality television emerged as a distinct genre in the early 19 ...

shows such as '' Big Brother''. The title refers to the guessing game

I spy I spy is a guessing game where one player (the ''spy'' or ''it'') chooses an object within sight and announces to the other players that "I spy with my little eye something beginning with...", naming the first letter of the object. Other players a ...

Plot

Five contestants, Matt (Sean Cw Johnson), Emma (

Laura Regan Laura Regan (born October 17, 1974) is a Canadian actress. She has had leading and supporting roles in the films ''Saving Jessica Lynch'' (2003), ''My Little Eye'' (2002), ''They (2002 film), They'' (2002), ''Dead Silence'' (2007), and ''Atlas ...

), Charlie (

Jennifer Sky Jennifer Sky (born Jennifer Wacha) is an American actress. She is known for portraying Sarah Webber on the ABC daytime soap opera ''General Hospital'' (1997–1998), and for starring as Cleopatra, the title character in the American syndicated ...

), Danny ( Stephen O'Reilly) and Rex (

Kris Lemche Kris Lemche (born 1978 or 1979) is a Canadian actor. Career At 17 years old, Lemche answered a newspaper casting call and won a role on the Disney series ''Flash Forward''. Abandoning plans to study biochemistry in University, Lemche instead ...

), agree to take part in a reality webcast, where they must spend six months in a house to win $1 million. If anyone leaves, then no one wins the money. Nearing the end of the six months, tension between the contestants rises after Emma finds strange messages she believes are from a man from her past and the food packages arrive containing a letter that claims Danny's grandfather has died, and a gun with five bullets. One night, a man named Travis Patterson (

Bradley Cooper Bradley Charles Cooper (born January 5, 1975) is an American actor and filmmaker. He is the recipient of various accolades, including a British Academy Film Award and two Grammy Awards, in addition to nominations for nine Academy Awards, si ...

) arrives, claiming he is lost in the woods and that his GPS has died. Despite claiming to be an internet programmer, he claims to not recognize any of the contestants or ever having heard of the show. Later that night, Travis has sex with Charlie, and then secretly talks directly into a camera, to communicate with whoever is watching them. The next morning, Travis leaves and Danny discovers his backpack outside covered in blood and shredded to pieces. The contestants assume he was attacked by an animal but Rex believes Travis works for the people running their show and that it is all a trick to make them leave the house and forfeit the prize money. Emma discovers her underwear among Danny’s belongings and confronts him, unaware that Travis planted them there the previous night. Danny denies it and attempts to make peace by giving her a crudely carved wooden cat, which Emma and Charlie ridicule, while Danny overhears. The next morning, the group finds Danny has committed suicide by hanging himself from the staircase balcony with a rope. The guests finally decide to leave, but after being unable to contact anyone via radio, decide to wait until the next morning. Rex uses the

GPS The Global Positioning System (GPS), originally Navstar GPS, is a Radionavigation-satellite service, satellite-based radionavigation system owned by the United States government and operated by the United States Space Force. It is one of t ...

unit from Travis' bag and his

laptop A laptop, laptop computer, or notebook computer is a small, portable personal computer (PC) with a screen and alphanumeric keyboard. Laptops typically have a clam shell form factor with the screen mounted on the inside of the upper li ...

to gain access to the internet to find out more about the show but is unable to find any evidence of their show online. Rex is only able to find a heavily

encrypted In cryptography, encryption is the process of encoding information. This process converts the original representation of the information, known as plaintext, into an alternative form known as ciphertext. Ideally, only authorized parties can decip ...

beta site, that requires a $50,000 fee to access, and displays a web page with their pictures and betting

odds Odds provide a measure of the likelihood of a particular outcome. They are calculated as the ratio of the number of events that produce that outcome to the number that do not. Odds are commonly used in gambling and statistics. Odds also have ...

. The group decides they will leave the next morning, though Rex and Emma go up to the roof to set off a

flare A flare, also sometimes called a fusée, fusee, or bengala in some Latin-speaking countries, is a type of pyrotechnic that produces a bright light or intense heat without an explosion. Flares are used for distress signaling, illumination, ...

. While Charlie and Matt remain in the house, Matt asks a camera if he should kill her, before suffocating her with a plastic bag. Later, while Emma is sleeping, Rex comes downstairs and is decapitated with an axe by Matt. Matt awakens Emma and brings her up to the attic, telling her he is being chased and the others are dead. He then makes advances on Emma, who refuses, and attempts to rape her, before she stabs him in the back and runs off. Emma runs outside and finds a police officer, who handcuffs her inside the car and enters the house. An injured Matt then crawls out, begging the cop to let him kill Emma, since he spent six months in the house with her. Realizing they are working together, Emma escapes the car and tries to run but is shot in the back with a rifle by the cop. Matt and the cop sit in the kitchen discussing the setup they created with Travis for their high paying clients who want to witness the murders. When the cop says there are always "five suckers" to play the game with, Matt corrects him to four, and is then shot in the head. The cop then leaves, talking to Travis over the radio, while Emma is seen locked in a small room, unable to escape. As she collapses screaming, the cameras filming all shut off, one by one.

Cast

* Sean Cw Johnson as Matt *

as Rex * Stephen O'Reilly as Danny *

as Emma *

as Charlie *

Nick Mennell Nick Mennell is an American actor known for his stage work as well as his roles in the horror/ slasher remakes of '' Halloween'', and '' Friday the 13th''. Life and career Mennell graduated from Juilliard School in 2005. In 2007, Mennell was ...

as The Cop *

as Travis Patterson

Home media

''My Little Eye'' is available on DVD from MCA/Universal Home Video with most of the special features available on the Region 2 Special Edition including a filmmakers' commentary and deleted scenes. There is an audio mode "Conversations of the Company (Eavesdropping Audio Track)" which allows the viewer to listen to the radio conversations between the members of the company: Travis and "the cop". However, during this mode, the viewer cannot hear all of the dialogue of the cast in the scene. A UK release contains a 'Special Mode' where viewers see the film from the perspective of an internet subscriber, and more extra features become unlocked as the film goes on. You can watch other things going on in 'the house' in real time to what's happening in the film.

Reception

The film received polarized but positive reviews and holds 67% on

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

based on 21 reviews, with an average score of 5.2/10.

References

External links