My Little Eye

My Little Eye
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Marc Evans
Produced by	Alan Greenspan Jane Villiers David Hilton Jon Finn
Written by	David Hilton James Watkins
Starring	Sean Cw Johnson Kris Lemche Stephen O'Reilly Laura Regan Jennifer Sky
Music by	Bias
Cinematography	Hubert Taczanowski
Editing by	Marguerite Arnold
Studio	StudioCanal Working Title Films WT2 Productions
Distributed by	Universal Pictures (UK) Momentum Pictures (UK) Focus Features (USA) Odeon Films (Canada)
Release date(s)	April 27, 2004 (US) (DVD première)
Running time	95 minutes
Country	United Kingdom United States France Canada
Language	English
Budget	$3 million

My Little Eye is a 2002 British horror film directed by Marc Evans 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 shows such as Big Brother. The title refers to the guessing game I spy.

Plot

The story follows five contestants who agree to take part in a reality webcast. The rules are simple: “Spend 6 months in a house for $1 MILLION. If someone leaves, everyone loses!“ With the end of the 6 months nearing, the tension between contestants Matt (Sean Cw Johnson), Emma (Laura Regan), Charlie (Jennifer Sky) and Rex (Kris Lemche) is at a high level. Instead of their regular food deliveries, packages containing things like a gun, champagne or a letter, that tells one contestant a family member has died, arrive.

One day, a man named Travis Patterson (Bradley Cooper) arrives and claims he was lost in the woods. Travis seems completely oblivious to the cameras in the house and the contestants are puzzled to find out he doesn’t recognize them, even though he says he lives on the internet. That night however, Travis sneaks around the house and talks directly into the camera, communicating with whoever is watching them.

Later while taking a walk outside, Danny discovers Travis' backpack covered in blood and shred to pieces. The contestants assume he was attacked by an animal but Rex believes Travis works for the people running their show. He says it is just a trick to make them panic and leave, which would mean a forfeit of prize money. After this is taken into consideration, the house guests instead plea to the cameras and their viewers to call for help.

The group tries to continue with their daily routines. Emma discovers her underwear, which Travis stole, among Danny’s belongings and confronts him. Although he denies stealing them, Emma refuses to believe him and later mocks him with Charlie, which Danny overhears. The next morning the group finds Danny dead, hanging from a balcony with a rope around his neck. At this point the house guests no longer care about their prize money and decide to use the emergency radio to call for help. After not being able to contact someone via radio they decide to wait until the next morning, when a helicopter is scheduled to retrieve them for staying in the house for the required amount of time to win.

Rex uses a GPS unit found in Travis' bag and his laptop computer to gain access to the internet to find out more about the show they're participating in. He gathers the remaining house guests and they all retreat to a room where cameras and microphones are supposedly not allowed. Rex reveals to his other roommates that he hasn't been able to find a single thing about their show. No advertisement or even mention of it appears anywhere on the internet, the only thing he could find regarding their show was a heavily encrypted beta site. Rex explains that he tried every hacking trick he knows and still cannot gain access. The group realizes that the subscribers are paying more than $50,000 to see the website. Rex then brings up the possibility of this being a snuff film.

Unexpectedly the encrypted site gives the house guests access to a page displaying their pictures and odds with Danny‘s pictured shaded another color, representing his death. The screen then shows a live video of them, sitting in the supposedly camera-free room. The contestants then gather weapons to assure their safety. Rex searches through Travis' backpack again and finds a flare and sets it off on the roof in the hopes that someone nearby will see it and come to help.

While giving Charlie a massage, Matt suddenly talks to a camera, asking if he should kill her now. He then suffocates her using a plastic bag, revealing he is part of the show. Later, Matt kills Rex by chopping his head off with an axe. He then fires a single shot from his gun while running upstairs, telling Emma he was chased and hides with her in the attic. After trying to make a move on Emma and she refuses, Matt attacks her and chases her around the house. She manages to get a hold of the gun and shoots him, just as a car approaches the house.

Emma gets out of the house to find a cop (Nick Mennell) waiting outside. The officer asks Emma if she was the one who set off the flare. Emma is terror stricken, and tries to tell him that people are dead and Matt is after her. She pleads with the officer to not go into the house. The cop handcuffs Emma and places her into his car. While in the car Emma is seen being is filmed. As the injured Matt comes out of house and screams that he wants to kill her, Emma gets out of the car and runs away. The cop then shoots her in the back with a rifle.

Later, Matt and the cop are seen drinking champagne together. The cop reveals that he set all this up by himself, along with Travis Patterson, and very rich clients who pay a high fee to watch the murders. Emma is revealed to be alive, trapped in a small room. Just as Matt observes the captured Emma, the cop shoots him in the head, calling Travis over the radio who says that next time, he gets to be the cop. Emma, who witnessed all this, falls to the ground screaming in terror, her picture being broadcast over the internet.

Cast

• Sean Cw Johnson - Matt
• Kris Lemche - Rex
• Stephen O'Reilly - Danny
• Laura Regan - Emma
• Jennifer Sky - Charlie
• Bradley Cooper - Travis Patterson
• Nick Mennell - The Cop

DVD

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.

External links

• My Little Eye at the Internet Movie Database
• My Little Eye at AllRovi
• Interview with director Marc Evans