Alan Jones of "Shivers" magazine once called "Fear Dot Com" a "ring for retards". If that is true then "Three Blind Mice" is like "Fear Dot Com" with an IQ. Three Blind Mice is a patient film, and a thinking film. So in that right it seems more Asian than European. While European films are generally less plot with more visuals this film sort of goes in the other direction. It was released by First Look Films, the same people who brought us "Dahmer" (probably the best serial killer biography film made since "Henry"). The director in this film opts for a lot of "My Little Eye" type visuals toward the beginning and the end but they do not overpower the film the way they did in that movie. The plot is something you'll have to think about, which is refreshing for a contemporary European thriller and especially refreshing for the sort of trash that usually goes direct to video. This movie was the one that was supposed to jump start Edward Furlong's career (again) but since it has been released direct to video his film career will really hinge on the next Crow movie he's starring in with David Boreanaz, "The Crow: Wicked Prayer". All together this is one of the few thinking European movies that won't be remade, unlike "Insomnia", "The Vanishing" and "Nightwatch" because it bears too large a resemblance to "Fear Dot Com" and "8MM". But if you're renting it its a nice watch. It isn't the greatest watch but for a direct to video release it's pleasant surprise to see that this much thought was put into it. It's a much better film that "Fear Dot Com", which steals from "Kill Baby Kill", "Ringu" and its American counterpart "The Ring" (the whole nosebleed thing didn't happen in the original Japanese movie), and while the cast and ending aren't quite up to par the same way as "8MM" it's very unpredictable. With how early the first murder occurred caught me quite off guard. This may be what weighs the movie down for a lot of people, (something that really grabs you happens early on and nothing quite as visually or mentally engaging happens for quite a while after). But I was patient and, at least in a intellectual sense, it paid off. I do have a number of problems with the script though. Since we are only really hinted at a relationship between Furlong's character and the Cathy character the murder isn't quite as powerful as it could've been, and in for this reason the trailer which accompanies the feature on the DVD leaves you with a different impression of the story being than the film itself does. Even though the two main characters do touch upon the idea of a relationship between two people existing only physically though means of the internet during a conversation (and therefore not really physically at all) its never really touched upon again in the script. Though by the end of film we get to see the contrast of feeling between the type of people who do the watching (we see what other kinds of people watch these sites, though way of their emails to the Cathy character) and the sort of people being watched (though means of the story having the female lead set up her own voyeur site in order to catch the killer) and the more importantly the difference between the sorts of people who only watch and the sorts of people who actually know the people they're watching. Since neither "Fear Dot Com" or "8MM" really bother to touch upon these sort of relationships this film actually represents a screenwriter touching upon an original idea in the middle of writing his film (another reason this isn't bankable Hollywood material). I'm glad that for once a story about people's relationship with the internet actually has something to say. Fortunately the director's power over the camera doesn't slow down or stop the story from being told. When the time comes he takes a passive role here and just you watch the story develop, though his talent for knowing how to tell the story creatively come in handy toward the end of the story. Another problem American audiences might have with this movie is the ending. But you must realize that the screenwriter deciding to end the story the way he did allowed him to insert another one of these themes into the story, and therein allowing you to understand more about these characters and the screenwriter's point of view of the world.
Review of 3 Blind Mice
