WARNING! Spoilers for Welcome To The Blumhouse's Evil Eye ahead.
The latest movies from the Welcome To The Blumhouse series have officially dropped on Amazon as of October 13, 2020, including the romantic thriller, Evil Eye, which manages to set itself apart from others in the sub-genre. From the production studio that brought the world the Paranormal Activity and The Purge franchises comes an all new set of horror stories, each one more unique than the last. Evil Eye is one of the most riveting thrillers from Blumhouse to date.
The anthology movie series, Welcome To The Blumhouse, has offered sci-fi tales of horror with Black Box, a dark secret in The Lie, a gruesome sibling rivalry in Nocturne, and a romantic thriller for the ages. It's entirely common for movies from this sub-genre to also be considered psychological horror or thrillers. In the case of Evil Eye, the movie includes elements of supernatural horror and the inclusion of curses, but it also explores a disturbing story about an abusive man whose wicked ways comes back twofold. Evil Eye resembles both Adrien Lyne's Fatal Attraction (1987) as well as Alfred Hitchcock's Rebecca (1940).
In Evil Eye, after Pallavi (Sunita Mani) finds the man of her dreams, Sandeep (Omar Maskati); her mother quickly discovers that he may be too good to be true and, even worse, a part of her past that should've stayed dead. Usha (Sarita Choudhury) tells her daughter of the horrors she faced by an abusive ex-boyfriend who threatened her life and cursed Pallavi when she was eight months pregnant with her. Fearing that Sandeep may be the reincarnation of her deadly ex, Usha must find a way to save Pallavi before its too late. Evil Eye is one of the most unique romantic thrillers to date; here's what it does better than others.
It is common for romantic thrillers to feature a woman as the antagonist who forms a relationship with a taken man, an unrequited love, or a stranger. Evil Eye takes the trope of the evil woman and transforms it into a malevolent man who will stop at nothing to get who he wants. While movies such as Fear (1996) do depict a man as the antagonist, it's not nearly as common to see them in the role of seducer. Blumhouse's romantic thriller amplifies the threat by making Sandeep a supernatural being. He is the reincarnation of the man who abused Usha, and supposedly cursed Pallavi. His origins are unlike any other antagonist in the sub-genre. Unlike most romantic thrillers where the relationship comes to an end once the antagonist dies, Sandeep will never die; he'll continue to be reborn. This makes it a terrifying story not just about romantic partners, but also about a cursed bloodline, adding a fun supernatural element to a sub-genre often known for grounded—if not occasionally overdramatized—realism.
After Usha killed her ex, he reincarnated as Sandeep, who was drawn to Pallavi. As the movie progresses, it is revealed that he is enacting the same pattern of behavior towards her daughter. The movie culminates in the two women joining forces to take down Sandeep for good. It completely removes the idea that the scary aspects of romantic thrillers can only be perpetrated by a man or woman who is in a relationship, usually with someone who is already married. In the beginning, there is no one to stop Pallavi and Sandeep from being together. Most romantic thrillers have an individual who attempts to put an end to the toxic relationship. In Evil Eye, half of the thrill comes from the fact that Usha is far away in India while her daughter is actively in danger in Louisiana.
In essence, Evil Eye constructs a supernatural romantic thriller that subverts common tropes in the sub-genre and chooses its thrilling aspects carefully to ensure it is entirely unique. This also speaks to how Welcome to the Blumhouse is dedicated to telling new, fresh stories in the horror genre.