Every Haunting Hour Ever #47: Red Eye

Season: 3
Episode: 7
Original Airdate: November 17, 2012
Director: Ken Friss 
Writer(s): Natalie Lapointe & Greg Yolen

Remember that Ben Stine commercial for Clear Eyes products where he's all like "For dry red eyes, Clear Eyes is... Awesome!" I do. I first saw a snippet of it in the Nostalgia Critic's review of the Pound Puppies movie. Oh and guess what? Red Eye is the name of today's episode! 

Georgia (Mackenzie Foy) enjoys getting mail from her father when he's traveling. But then she receives a picture with a dark shadow on it. The next picture has the shadow right next to father. After suffering bad dreams, she figures out that she is being haunted by an Alp with the power to possess small objects. When her father comes back with a doll as a present, she thinks it is carrying the Alp and smashes it at night. 

Much like the Weeping Woman episode, this episode involves a legendary figure like the Alp. However, the episode's lore and the actual lore behind the Alp are quite different. In the episode, it's explained that an Alp has the power to possess small objects like photographs. In the real world lore, an Alp attacks people, typically women, and controls their dreams. To be honest, I didn't really mind how different the lore was in this episode because they're not only doing their own thing but I think the Alp's powers are well demonstrated in a visual way, specifically when the Alp becomes clearer the more photos Georgia receives. 

The other thing I liked about this episode is the ending. Thanks to the episode not having a lot of plot, it gets to devote more time to building up an unsettling atmosphere. Not only that but it also kind of plays with expectations a bit. Like I said, in this episode, the Alp has the ability to possess small objects so when Georgia's father brings a small figurine home, Georgia smashes it thinking that the Alp is inside. However, her father (Kurt Evans) comes out and reveals his red eyes that mark him as the Alp, saying "Daddy's not here" as Georgia screams. Given how the episode sets up the Alp's lore, one might not expect to see the father being possessed by the Alp, as he doesn't seem like a small object. 

However, I do have one complaint and that's with the Alp's design. This might seem like a minor complaint as we only see the design in two scenes but to me, I feel like the design is rather silly looking. I think this is because it looks like a character that you'd see on either the Haunted Mansion ride or The Pirates of the Caribbean ride at Disney. Now sure, Mascot might've had a goofy looking antagonist with Big Yellow but with that episode, the combination of atmosphere, music, and heavy tension beautifully complimented the sense of vulnerability the episode was going for as shown by the idea that you know Big Yellow is coming but you don't know when he's going to strike next. However, aside from some strong atmosphere, there's not much to make up for the Alp's goofy design.  For me, if you're going to have a goofy looking antagonist that's supposed to be scary, you really gotta do more to make up for it. 

Overall, Red Eye is a fairly decent episode. While there were some elements I liked, there was some others that I felt dragged down the quality of the episode. Honestly, it's kind of a mixed bag for me. 

Overall Grade: C