The quest to import good horror from abroad has extended to Japan, China, Korea, Hong Kong, and virtually every country you can think of, but the one that has been relatively untouched, at least until now, is India. As many might know already, India has a huge film industry and the country has in the past been a world record holder for the most films released. So, can India scare the hell out of horror fans the way that Japan or any of the other Asian countries can?

At the age of five Naina lost her parents in a tragic car accident as well as her eyesight. Now, twenty years later she’s preparing to have a cornea transplant that will allow her to see once again. The miracle of sight however is anything but that and Naina begins seeing something otherworldly. Though her doctor and grandmother try and convince her that these visions are nothing more than hallucinations, Naina’s visions become more terrifying and she finds herself in a nightmare that she can’t escape.

When I see quotes like “imaginative” on DVD packaging that means one of two things. Either the film really is just that, or that’s the farthest thing from the truth. India probably could scare the heck out of people with their horror films but in this case, there is one slight problem that really keeps that from happening. You see, Naina is nothing more than a complete rip-off of the Pang brothers film The Eye, as well as a few other Asian horror films thrown in for good measure.

Were Naina just a remake, I might have a little forgiveness, but after doing quite a bit of research, I found no evidence that it was, though at times it was hailed as the Hindu version of The Eye, but it’s not an official remake. The only country thus far that has that distinction of a remake, and it hasn’t even entered into pre-production at this point, is the United States, but I don’t have faith that the American version will even compare to the original.

So, just how similar is Naina to The Eye? Well, shortly after Naina gets her cornea transplant she decides to go to take up painting, but during one of her lessons she suddenly sees a mysterious, ghostly figure that tells her to get out her their chair. There’s the incident in the elevator where a spirit slowly inches its way behind her, closer and closer, until she just narrowly escapes. It’s all too familiar, and it just gets worse.

No one believes Naina, at least not for a while anyway, until she finally manages to convince her doctor, Sameer, that what she’s been seeing is real, at least to her. Now she wants to know who it was that donated the eyes, something that is supposed to be kept secret. Once they’ve discovered that much, it’s off to another part of India where they find the tragic life of a young girl who could see horrible deaths before they occurred. The films climax finds Naina witnessing a gas main explosion that is about to take place, the same finale as seen in The Eye.

Save for a few rearrangements, Naina isn’t a movie that bears some similarity to The Eye, it IS The Eye, only with new locations and names. The film even borrows an idea from Dark Water. Naina has been seeing a little girl in her apartment building and soon realizes what has happened. The girl met with a tragic end when she managed to find her way onto the roof of the building, slipped into a water reserve and drowned. If you’ve seen either version of Dark Water, this should sound vaguely familiar, though Naina isn’t going for the full story in this case.

The only real saving grace that the film has going for it is that the special effects often tend to be much better than what was seen in The Eye, but you honestly can’t sell a film based on special effects alone. If that were the case, people would have loved the new Star Wars trilogy. But while Naina may visuals that are a little better, the fact that the film blatantly steals ideas from other films and throws any sense of originality completely out the window hurts the film drastically. If you’ve never seen The Eye, this may not be a factor, but if you have, you are going to find yourself quickly dismayed at what is presented here.

The DVD doesn’t include any additional features relating to the film, and that honestly doesn’t surprise me. I really don’t think I could stomach interviews with the director talking about the film as if it’s some huge accomplishment. Stealing someone else’s idea isn’t something to be proud of no matter how you package it.

What began as elation ended in despair in this case. I really was anxious to see what type of horror film makers in India could unleash on their audience, and Naina is simply horror that is plagiarized and repackaged. There is only one case in which I’d even recommend this film, and that is for those who haven’t seen the original source material that the films that were used as templates for Naina. If you’re one however who loves Asian horror, Naina is probably only going to make you a little more than upset and the fact that this is trying to be pawned off as some fantastic movie is nothing more than a punch below the belt.