Director Colin Tilley is primarily known for his Grammy-nominated work directing countless music videos for some of the hottest musical acts. This time, he’s channeling his directing skills into a horror film written by Elisa Victoria and Michael Tully (Don’t Leave Home) titled Eye for an Eye. The film follows a teenage girl who lost her parents in an accident and is now forced to move in with her estranged blind grandmother. After falling in with some bad kids, the girl becomes the next target of a deadly local legend.

Audiences watching Eye for an Eye might get the sense that the film is a combination of A Nightmare on Elm Street and IT. Yet it manages to set itself apart with a unique mythos and an important social message. The film opens with a haunting nursery rhyme telling the story of “Mr. Sandman,” an entity known in a small Florida town to haunt bullies in their dreams before taking their eyes. A glimpse of how he works is shown before the film introduces Anna. Anna lost her parents and has to move from her home in New York to rural Florida to live with the blind grandmother she’s never met. She eventually meets and hangs out with a couple of local kids, but a violent act leaves the group shaken. This leads Mr. Sandman to the trio. The film has a lot of intrigue and frightening moments. While the plot could be described as a slow burn, it’s punctuated with shocking moments of terror to keep viewers on the edge of their seats. It weaves together multiple mysteries such as who Mr. Sandman is, how can he be stopped, and why Anna’s grandmother and great Aunt seem to have so much knowledge of the legend.

For the most part, this plot works quite well. The lore around Mr. Sandman is compelling and tragic. He’s certainly a villain in the eyes of Anna and her new friends, but at the same time his backstory and reason for going after his victims might make some root for him. Mr. Sandman only cares about bullies, so if he’s after you, do you really deserve sympathy? It creates an interesting moral quandary, making viewers confront their definition of right, wrong, and the grey area in between. That being said, there are some elements of Eye for an Eye that don’t work quite as well. The most apparent issue is with the grandmother and her sister. Certain elements of their story come to light, but some of the biggest burning questions are left unanswered. It makes their storyline come across as either incomplete or perhaps even unnecessary to the rest of the film. The other complication comes from how Anna and her friends try to stop Mr. Sandman. Without giving too much away, the plot seems to take the audience down one path, leading to a specific resolution, but then at the climax of the film there’s a shift. It’s the kind of ending that certainly makes sense by the time the credits roll, but it also makes some of the earlier hints confusing. Despite this, Mr. Sandman is still an iconic new movie monster with an important message for everyone – bullies always get what’s coming to them.

Eye for an Eye has a fantastic cast of familiar faces. Whitney Peak (Hocus Pocus 2, Chilling Adventures of Sabrina) stars as Anna. From the moment Anna appears on screen, it’s clear she’s a good person just trying to find her footing in the new life she’s been thrust into. Peak certainly has a star quality, making the character sympathetic even in her worst moments. Finn Bennett (True Detective, Warfare) gives a truly disturbing performance as local swamp rat, Shawn. Most familiar with Bennett’s work know him for playing kind, helpful, strong characters. For this role, Bennett does a complete 180, making Shawn a truly vile character audiences will love to hate. Other standout performances come from S. Epatha Merkerson (Law & Order) as Grandma May, Golda Rosheuvel (Bridgerton) as Aunt Patti, and Laken Giles (All the Weekend’s Drama) as teenager Julie.

The visual elements of Eye for an Eye are pivotal to the story. There is an opening dream sequence that comes across slightly silly, and every once in a while the CGI is a bit rough, but luckily things only get better from there. The filmmakers took great care in creating unsettling imagery during the dreams. All of this imagery either adds to the lore of Mr. Sandman or speaks to the inner workings of the dreamer’s mind. It creates a balance between beauty and horror and gives audiences a glimpse of Tilley’s unique style. The creature design for Mr. Sandman himself is also quite terrifying, looking like something that grew out of the ground and into your worst nightmare. All of these frights and thrills exist in an appropriately spooky swamp setting complete with creepy forest and haunting old house.

Eye for an Eye delivers a frightening new monster with an anti-bullying agenda. While leaves a few too many questions unanswered, Tilley clearly has a creative eye for directing and brought to life a compelling film. The main drawback lies in some plot lines being left incomplete by the time the film ended. It helps that the entire cast is phenomenal, especially Peak and Bennett, and the unsettling visuals leave a lasting impression. This is hopefully just the beginning of Tilley’s career as a horror film director. You can watch Eye for an Eye now on VOD.

OVERALL RATING: 6.5/10