Eye for an Eye, Co-Starring S. Epatha Merkerson

This Bogeyman follows a long, time-honored tradition in horror. It targets bullies. EC Comics would approve. Bullying has often resulted in macabre comeuppance, but the so-called “Sandman” specifically responds to the bullied to call out their abusers. The guilty receive visits from the Sandman—in their dreams, but the physical scars are always permanent in Colin Tilley’s Eye for an Eye, which releases this Friday in theaters and on demand.

Anna Reeves’ grandmother May Roberts was a popular mean girl in high school, but she never graduated, because of the Sandman. Now, she is a mean old blind woman, but Reeves is sent to live with her anyway after her parents are killed in a traffic accident. Sadly, it was her sister, Reeves’ Aunt Patti who appealed to Sandman for relief from Roberts’ grief.

Out in the swamp, there is a tree where a blind little boy Vincent was reputedly killed by his bullies. According to local lore, if the grossly abused carve the names of their tormentors into the bark, the Sandman starts afflicting them with nightmares. When the sands in his hourglass expire, the Sandman then takes the bullies’ eyes as his punitive prize.

None of this should particularly concern a basically good kid like Reeves. However, she unwisely befriends Julie Cross and her nasty white trash boyfriend Shawn Heard, who thuggishly roughs up a young boy, breaking his leg, while stealing his skates. Much to her shame, Reeve stood by doing nothing to defend him. Her regret increases exponentially when Aunt Patti directs the traumatized boy to Sandman’s tree.

Weirdly, Eye for an Eye shares many common elements with Sidharta Tata’s Soul Reaper, from Indonesia. In both films, the young lead character is menaced by a supernatural stalker in their nightmares, after the accidental deaths of their parents. However, Soul Reaper is by far the more successful and scarier film.

Still, Eye for an Eye notably presents S. Epatha Merkerson, whom most viewers know from several thousand Law & Order and One Chicago episodes in a macabre context, as creepy Grandma Roberts. She is definitely unsettling, chewing the scenery and making the most of a role outside her typical casting zone.

Golda Rosheuvel is also quite good as Aunt Patti, conveying her resentment and spooky familiarity with the old folky ways. However, the teens are unable to elevate their cliched stock-characters.

Indeed, the execution of Eye for an Eye is serviceable, but unremarkable. Consequently, it compares poorly with Soul Reaper and other nightmare-themed horror films (like Nightmare Detective and the Freddy Kruger films). Frankly, it feels like Tilley was satisfied to reach the threshold of “okay,” but that really isn’t good enough. Not sufficiently memorable to recommend, Eye for an Eye releases this Friday (6/20) in theaters and on VOD.