For a country that hasn't made a lot of horror movies this movie sure is a huge improvement. But it still needs a lot of work. The slow buildup was pretty good and provided just enough tension to make it interesting. However there were not enough scary moments to qualify as a real horror. As a drama this also fails since most of the characters don't act as they would in real life. It was very hard for me to have sympathy for the mother. Since it was obvious she wasn't exactly right in the head from the start. If this fact wasn't entirely clear than some events would have worked better. A lot of events in the movie also relied too much on coincidence and convenience. The cousin is pretty vague throughout the movie until the end. Christine and her odd behavior towards her husband and her daughter should have at least made the husband curious to find out what is going on. But he makes no attempt whatsoever. Another example is the fact that both parents suddenly have to work when previously only one did. Logically it doesn't even make sense since they didn't have to pay rent and had more to spare. Plot wise it is understandable since they had to create the opportunity for the daughter Lisa to experience the things she does. Of course these are all tactics to build up the tension even more but to me it had quite the opposite effect. These superficial tactics would have worked better if the movie had other things to offer. Like really scary scenes or imagery that would suggest or give another perspective on the events. The lack of actual plot or character development made it a predictable affair to the experienced horror fan. And that really is a bloody shame since this movie had the potential to become a classic.

The Dutch haven't made many horror films. When asked to list the ones he knew of, director Elbert van Strien said there were only five, although he could only recall the names of two of them. In other words, Holland is not well represented in this genre. The only other significant film in this area was the 1988 film The Vanishing; although not a bona fide horror film, it certainly was disturbing enough. Two Eyes Staring is, however, an unashamed horror film, seeing as its subject matter concerns ghosts and malevolent secrets from the past. And although it may not contain anything that exactly breaks the mould, it does succeed in providing some very effective and memorable scare scenes.

The story is basically about a couple and their little girl, Lisa, who move into a large house left by a recently deceased grandmother. The said grandparent was decidedly distant from her daughter and once in the stately home all manner of dark secrets begin to surface via Lisa, who continually sees a ghost of a tragic little girl. These events lead to a serious breakdown in the family with tragic consequences.

Elbert van Strien has put together a very good ghost story here. He is helped ably by a small but good cast of actors. Especially fine were Isabelle Stokkel as Lisa, who puts in a great performance for such a young actress, but Hadewych Minis possibly steals the show as Christine, the mother; the two standout fright scenes in the film directly involve her. The first one sees Lisa awake in the night to see her mother staring down at her in a highly sinister way, while the second, and best, standout scene has Lisa witness her mother in the dead of night rabidly destroying her own artwork with a large kitchen knife, she then turns on her daughter with an extremely malevolent look on her face and attacks. In both of these simple but very well-executed sequences Hadewych Minis is truly terrifying. Alongside these well-crafted scenes, Two Eyes Staring also has a number of definite jump moments and the overall atmosphere is decidedly off-kilter. Although this is a ghost story it is also as much as anything about psychologically damaged people. This of course means that it is disturbing on two levels.

This is a fine blend of both supernatural and psychological horror. As I said earlier, it doesn't really deliver anything especially new to the genre. Nevertheless, it actually works as a horror film in that it frightens and occasionally surprises. And this is much more than most films of its type achieve. Apparently, but sadly unsurprisingly, this Dutch movie is going to be remade in America, despite not even having been released beyond the festival circuit yet, so all I can say is see it before this happens.

TWO STARING EYES is a horror film from Holland but which completely follow the canons of the American horror cinema. I mean the plot, the characters and the setting could be very well from any horror film from Hollywood that no one would even notice… It is good on one side, but it's bad on the other. The good news is that the visual effects, the atmosphere created, some suspense scenes are well done, and technically we can say the film is good. The bad news is that following all these canons of the American cinema it also has the same clichés. I mean at parts it seems like a traditional ghost story full of "ghost stories' clichés" when in fact this plot has nothing to do with a ghost story! We find it at the end! So it ends adding nothing new to a plot that had too much potential and could be explored in other way… By other words, it could have been a great film, on the psychological side, but ends being just an entertaining spooky film so many times seen before… Nevertheless I score it 7/10.