"Red Eye" Movie Review

Rachel McAdams faces demons past and present in Wes Craven's thriller at 30,000 feet. McAdams and Cillian Murphy are teamed with excellent results in "Red-Eye." McAdams, well known from her roles in "Wedding Crashers," and "Sherlock Holmes," and Murphy, who was so impressive as The Scarecrow in "Batman Begins," have a mesmerizing chemistry as they shift roles and emotions, he from charming stranger to cold blooded killer, she from guarded but increasingly charmed object of flirtation to horror stricken but ultimately indomitable hostage.

With an impressive economy of strokes, McAdams' character Lisa Reisert is painted as a sympathetic woman of depth with more than a few emotional and physical scars. Murphy, as the terrorist-for-hire Jackson Rippner, is conversely a frighteningly blank slate, a conscienceless cipher not unlike the serial killer Ted Bundy, who can beguile in one moment and butcher in the next.

"Red-Eye" is not a supernatural horror film, as its effective but misleading original trailer suggested, but rather a taut, expertly crafted suspense drama involving a hired killer and an innocent girl who has the power to set up his very high-profile victim: the head of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

Director Craven has created many classic horror films ("A Nightmare on Elm Street," "The Serpent and the Rainbow," "Scream") and some very disappointing ones ("Shocker," "Vampire in Brooklyn"). The success of "Red-Eye" completely redeems the dog of a werewolf movie that was his previous film, "Cursed." "Red-Eye" is involving from beginning to end, in part because of Craven's assured direction and to an even greater degree because of the skills of his lead actors. Again and again, he shows his exceptionally gifted and good-looking actors in close-up, allowing their expressive faces to fascinate as they play out a dangerous game of cat and mouse.

Audiences will be happy they went along for the ride with "Red-Eye."