On the bad side of Philadelphia a young man named Jeffrey (Clayton Haske) has to deal with the effects of his unique 'gift' - he sees dead people, and often times, they're not happy. At first, Jeffrey is in denial about all of this, after all, no one is going to believe him so why should he believe himself? He's understandably concerned about what others are going to think about his ability. Soon Jeffrey's fears are somewhat alleviated when he meets a pretty woman named Dana (Allison Persaud) who shares his ability to see the dead.

Jeffrey's life turns around once Dana enters it and he begins to fall for her and at the same time come to terms with his gift knowing that someone else out there shares it. Eventually, Jeffrey finds himself the unwitting victim of a random beating and winds up in the hospital. As he recovers from the events he tries to figure out who did it and why and the only person who can help him solve this puzzle is Dana. Unfortunately for Jeffrey, Dana is nowhere to be found...

Sight is far from perfect but there's enough meat on the bones of its story that its worth a watch if you don't mind the constraints inflicted on it by a fairly low budget. The debut of writer/director/editor/composer Adam Ahlbrandt, Sight is paced fairly well and there's been some obvious thought and care put into the cinematography and lighting. The picture looks quite bleak, visually, it's very grey but this fits in with Jeffrey's plight and while at times it's overkill, at least there's a reason for it. The film looks dead in terms of its color scheme. Ahlbrandt is smart enough to ensure that his film doesn't rely too heavily on special effects or expensive CGI, instead he lets the actors do the heavy lifting.

Story-wise, Ahlbrandt makes up for the low budget and the visual oddities by giving us a fairly intelligent plot. Jeffrey is a pretty sympathetic character and it's refreshing to see someone who can see the dead portrayed in a realistic manner. It only makes sense that Jeffrey would doubt his sanity when no one else sees what he sees or really understand how his supposed 'gift' actually works or effects his day to day life. He's not a superhero of a paranormal investigator, he's a real person and is portrayed as such.

Despite a few flaws in a couple of the supporting parts and the severe lack of color, Sight is worth a look for those who appreciate deliberately paced psychological thrillers. The cover art makes it look like a knock off of Shutter but Ahldrandt gives his film enough of a soul that it stands out on its own. The picture isn't a masterpiece, but it's a solid and eerie effort that's certainly a decent watch for genre fans.

Video:

Sight is presented on DVD in an anamorphic 1.85.1 widescreen transfer. While the picture is interlaced, the saw tooth artifacts are pretty mild, thankfully. The film was shot on digital video and so it doesn't have the depth that film does but overall the movie looks okay as long as you keep in mind that the film was intentionally shot with a very mute color scheme. The whole film is pale, with a greenish tint prominent throughout - this is not a very colorful movie. There are some mild compression artifacts present and a bit of shimmering shows up along diagonal lines but these are mild defects and don't hurt things too much. Overall, while this is far from reference quality, it's watchable.