Red Eye: Wes Craven’s flight from hell is piloted brilliantly from start to end

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Cillian Murphy may not rate it now, but this is arguably the most underrated film in the Scream director’s oeuvre

Cillian Murphy and Rachel McAdams in Wes Craven’s thriller Red Eye … ‘with a swift runtime that has its wheels down by the 85-minute mark’.Cillian Murphy and Rachel McAdams in Wes Craven’s thriller Red Eye … ‘with a swift runtime that has its wheels down by the 85-minute mark’., Wes Craven’s reputation as one of the finest film-makers of his kind was firmly cemented. The horror maestro had a knack for transforming schlocky material into A-grade popcorn entertainment.

It’s here that Lisa meets Jackson; the two strangers share a friendly drink at the airport before heading to their gate. Craven smartly chooses to keep this tender moment short and, once the cabin doors are sealed and the plane reaches cruising altitude, Jackson’s demeanour switches as he informs Lisa of his plans. If she doesn’t comply with his demands, he tells her, an associate will kill her father back home in Miami.

What ensues are some of the most thrilling setpieces onboard an aircraft committed to film, as Craven stages scene after scene of Lisa trying to outsmart her assailant. While the director’s most memorable moments of action have taken place in a domestic setting – the home in his movies functioning as a space of safety and danger – here he adapts to the narrow confines of the plane, converting walkways and lavatories into potential arenas of violence.

Ever the genre master, Craven knew that the key to elevating otherwise trite material was to imbue it with interesting ideas. His Scream films have become go-to texts when discussing the symbiotic relationship between crime and the media, their meta-commentary allowing audiences to both seriously reflect on and guiltlessly enjoy Ghostface’s murderous escapades.

In Red Eye there’s a blend of two different traumas: national anxiety fuelled by the threat of an airborne disaster just a few years removed from 9/11, and personal fear when it is revealed that Lisa is a survivor of a sexual assault just two years earlier – with a scar on her collarbone serving as a constant reminder of the harrowing experience.

 

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