Rachel McAdams and Cillian Murphy star in Dreamwork’s Red Eye, Copyright 2005.

This creepy Wes Craven flick takes you on a claustrophobic adventure that may keep you from flying for a while.

Lisa Reisert (Rachel McAdams) has just attended her grandmother’s funeral and is taking a Red Eye flight back to Miami, where she lives and works as the manager of an upscale hotel. After learning that her flight has been delayed, Lisa passes the time having a drink with a friendly and charming stranger, the oddly named Jackson Rippner (Cillian Murphy). Once the Red Eye flight is announced and Lisa boards the plane, she finds herself seated next to Mr. Rippner. It hardly comes as a surprise that their initial meeting and subsequent seating arrangement are not by coincidence. However, that is where the predictable ends and the real suspense and terror begin. To tell too many details would be to ruin the story so suffice it to say that Jack Rippner is a pretty nasty piece of work with some scary plans for Lisa and her father (Brian Cox), who also lives in Miami.

The film uses many of the true horrors of flying – lost luggage, delayed flights, turbulence, and crowded conditions – to set the scene for the kind of horrors most of us will (thankfully) never encounter. This movie in no typical Wes Craven nightmare with monstors hiding in the closet. Instead it is a tightly wound ninety minute thriller in which the villain is in your face, in your head and in the seat next to you!

Rachel McAdams and Cillian Murphy are outstanding. McAdams’ character may be one of the most realistic and resilient horror movie heroines of all time and Murphy is as sinister and evil as they come. Jack Rippner is no Freddy Kruger – Freddy may be the stuff of nightmares but Jack may just be your scariest dream come true. Thanks to a chilling performance by Murphy and masterly direction by craven, Red Eye is definitely one of the best thrillers I have ever seen.

Rated PG-13 for intense sequences of violence and language. Running Time 85 minutes.