Eye Eye
Following an eye transplant Ann Culver (Nicollette Sheridan - Haven't We Met Before?) has been plagued by visions that she believes are the last thing that the eye donor witnessed, her own murder. Ann's husband and specialist just think they are psychological scars left from the crash which was the cause behind Ann's loss of sight years earlier. Desperate to find the truth and rid herself of these visions Ann discovers who the donor was and using the visions tries to prove that the donor was murdered and did not commit suicide as the official report states.
It's a wet afternoon and you see a movie starring former "Desperate Housewives" star Nicollette Sheridan on the schedule and the storyline about a woman having visions of a murder following an eye transplant intrigues you. Well that is as excited as you will get because "Deadly Visions", or "Possessed" as it is also known, is a dull thriller built around the idea of tissue memory, as in the eyes capture the last few moments before someone died. This idea, that a recipient of eyes from a donor seeing visions, has been done before and frankly been done better. And sadly as "Deadly Visions" is a made for TV movie we also have numerous other issues from big believability issues to under written characters and over the top acting.
So as already mentioned "Deadly Visions" is a TV movie which uses the eye donor storyline with the recipient being plagued by strange visions, in this case Ann sees her donor's demise when a man comes towards her with a tyre iron. Now rather than do something clever with whether or not these visions are real or imaginary it basically leads to Ann trying to uncover the truth by first finding the name of the donor, then examining the case of how they died, visiting those who were suspects and so on. And being a thriller we have the clues to who the murderer is or at least who all her snooping around points the finger of suspicion at. Except anything that makes sort of sense is then discarded because the real truth of the donor's death is for the most plucked out of thin air so all the sleuthing which went on was pretty pointless.
And that really highlights the issue with "Deadly Visions" because it's not realistic, from Ann managing to get the name of the eye donor through to how she manages to solve the case. There are a lot of little conveniences such as Ann having been a courtroom typist and so manages to walk into the archive room to rummage through old case files. And there is of course the fact the killer of the donor is for the most plucked out of thin air with very few clues pointing there way to them.
There are other plot issues in "Deadly Visions" and we also have character issues as well especially when it comes to Ann, here is a woman who is plagued by these horrible visions of a murder, she still feels unable to drive following the car crash some years earlier and in the real world would be quite a troubled, harassed character. What we get is a beautiful woman who is fearless in trying to solve the mystery of the visions, she goes to rough neighbour hoods to talk to a druggie witness, visits a man who had a restraining order against him and is obviously dangerous. Basically Ann is not a believable character which is pretty much what you can say about all the characters, from dangerous men to detectives and especially the strange Jasmine, the blind woman who is down by the beach who with her husky voice and cloudy eyes helps Ann unlock her visions.
Because the characters in "Deadly Visions" are far too unrealistic it then makes the performances also weak and whilst Nicollette Sheridan is beautiful, all the hair flicking and looking panicky just ends up a bit cheesy especially when combined with some over the top dramatics. The scene where Ann revisits where the donor died borders on comical as Ann has the vision of the woman being bludgeoned to death and Ann body takes the blows, stumbling across the dirty warehouse. You almost get a sense that Sheridan was cast because she is beautiful and has stunning eyes which is sort of essential as the camera often zooms in on them. But then Sheridan actually gives the best performance in "Deadly Visions" as the rest of them are dull.
What this all boils down to is that "Deadly Visions" is not a good thriller and certainly not a good take on the whole eye transplant storyline. But despite there being a lot wrong with it, if it is a wet afternoon and there is nothing better on the TV schedule then give it a watch you will certainly remember it for Nicollette Sheridan's eyes if nothing else.
