IN the unmistakable controversy behind the topic of stem cell research, we now have The Eye, one film that reaches deep into the heart of the issue and offers us some good scary entertainment while the after-images linger, preventing us from getting a good night's sleep.

Remade from the Hong Kong film Jian Gui this is the story of a young blind woman who undergoes an eye transplant which in turn allows her to see supernatural images.

Sydney Wells (Jessica Alba), a violinist, has been blind for 20 years, and she is urged by her sister Helen (Parker Posey) to go through the surgery that may allow her to see once again.

"I think I wanted this more than you," Helen whispers in the hospital post-op. But creepy fog-eyed Sydney wanted it too, and badly. That popular aphorism comes to mind: be careful what you wish for — you might just get it.

Sydney Wells can see the dead. Perhaps her medical insurance is a little too good.

As far as I know this isn't based on a true story, but the fact that organ transplants happen every day is not a secret. Cellular memory — the instant inheritance of a trait or characteristic of an organ transplant recipient from the organ donor—comes to the forefront of possibilities even if the concept is anything but supernatural.

For example, the recipient of a liver transplant suddenly develops a love of pastry and finds he can't stop eating them, entirely unaware that his donor was a great lover of pastries.

Sydney Wells, having gone under the knife and emerging again with a new sense her body must get used to, sees the last visions of her organ donor, a girl named Ana Christina Martinez. Shadows hovering in the backlight, figures in hallways, still and dark and then frighteningly mobile, all of these enter into her new world of sight. She is taken from complete blackness into the sights of the hospital…and the blank walls and the mysterious shadows taking away the woman in the next bed awaken Sydney to a terrifying knowledge.

Days go by and her vision improves, as well as her depth perception. Unfortunately. The visions get worse. Her specialist, possible love interest Dr. Paul Faulkner (Alessandro Nivola) leads her into the land of the sighted with the abstract detachedness of a man of science. Yet he is her only contact for accepting, understanding and interpreting what she is truly seeing.

Through her daily life, Sydney lives alone whether blind or sighted, and she can't walk down the hallway to her apartment without being stopped by a spectre—nor can she take a shower or get into the lift or watch her new TV without experiencing in violent flashes the terror that was her donor's last moments. It becomes Sydney's mission to find out what happened to her donor. Sydney ends up in the dusty deserts of Mexico.

"¿Qué sabes qué sucedió aquí?" What happened here? Watch the film and find out!

Directors David Moreau and Xavier Palud deliver a fascinating film that will leave you breathless and tucked well into your seat.
Rating: ****

Eye Squeamishness Rating: *** (You'll probably be all right.)