The blurring between fiction and reality has become quite a prevalent theme in fiction, especially with the rise of AI and pseudo-intellectuals masquerading as alternative thinkers on TikTok. It Needs Eyes from directors Zack Ogle and Aaron Pagniano, which had its New York premiere at the 10th Brooklyn Horror Film Festival, impressively zeroes in on the conditions by which a person could be sucked and trapped within the void of fathomless information that is the internet, the kick it provides by rewarding those who dig deep enough in their search for the forbidden. And yet, it also struggles to bring its disparate elements together cohesively to conjure up palpable dread.
It Needs Eyes focuses on Rowan (Raquel Lebish), a sixteen-year-old girl staying with her aunt Mella (Lydia Fiore) while her father recovers at the hospital from a purposefully obscured predicament. The details of his condition are kept under wraps from Rowan, which causes her to become isolated and disassociated, her only refuge from the emotional trauma that of the world within her phone and laptop. Distraught and bored, she digs around the internet and finds disturbing video after disturbing video until she lands on a mysterious series of strange clips relating to a woman simply called “Fish Tooth”. Obsessed with and concerned about the woman in the surreal videos, she investigates and finds it all connects to a small island close to her aunt’s home, where her reality and that of Fish Tooth collide.
Taking cues from horror classic Videodrome (written and directed by David Cronenberg) as well as more recent indie staples like Jane Schoenbrun’s We’re All Going to the World’s Fair and Prano Bailey-Bond’s Censor, It Needs Eyes lacks the style and finesse of these films but makes up for it with interesting world-building and shocking scenes of pixelated violence. A specific video that serves as a fucked-up entry for Rowan is especially brutal, and features one of the best performances of the film from Benjamin Frankenberg. Fish Tooth’s videos, which harken back to the contextless, randomly uploaded Youtube videos of the 2000s, have a surreal quality without the need for explicit violence. Once we also get to know The Ash Man (T.J. Newton), it’s clear that this film has a strong understanding of the way “Creepypastas” are born (props to the filmmakers for also finding creative ways to show text and internet comments on screen, projecting them in walls and ceilings while the action continues).
However, as much as it succeeds in the realm of the disturbing and surreal, it is not as convincing in its dramatic components. Rowan’s story is composed of many moving parts: she is reeling from the trauma of finding her father unconscious, adjusting to a new place, piecing together Fish Tooth’s mystery, and desperately trying to make sense of what happened to her father. On top of this, she is also navigating her feelings towards an inviting and very upfront neighbor (Isadora Leiva) who seems like the only understanding figure in her life. It’s a lot, and while the filmmakers clearly wish to overwhelm the viewer just as Rowan is overwhelmed with information and emotions, the film never quite combusts as strongly as it should.
The coming-of-age elements of the film are also quite blandly shot and composed. Lydia Fiore as Aunt Mella and Raquel Labish deliver credible performances but the filmmaking dulls their impact with stilted camerawork and forced dialogue. As such, once the film enters the murky in-between where Rowan’s reality and her internet fixation bleed into one another, there’s little dramatic weight to reach any emotional resonance. Fortunately, the film ends on a strikingly creepy set piece which is aided by the same detailed attention given to the disturbing internet videos that set Rowan on her quest. It’s a shame that the character work does not meet the intensity of the disturbing world so carefully built.
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