On E List of Movie Reviews

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Eyes of a Stranger (1981)

Rate: 5
Viewed: 10/19

EyeStrange
10/19: Originally conceived as a murder mystery movie, Eyes of a Stranger changed course by latching onto the boom of the slasher genre while being funded by the production team that was behind Friday the 13th.

The story isn't original. Some random nondescript guy with glasses has the taste for serial rape-murders. Why does he do it? I don't know. He just kills people. Fuck 'em, he says, and I'm cool with that. Moving on...

What's unusual is how technically well-shot it is. There are plenty of good horror moments courtesy of Tom Savini, but in between is a lot of boring filler. When the movie first came out, it was heavily censored, but today, the DVD bares all. I have to say the gory details are necessary to give it a bite. The head in the fish tank is great, and so is the bullet hole in the serial killer's forehead.

Save for Jennifer Jason Leigh who makes her screen debut, nobody, not even Lauren Tewes, can act. I'm impressed with Jennifer Jason Leigh's signing, however brief it is, which is 100% correct and clear. So is the blind deaf-mute bit. How and what happened to her when she was a little girl is never fully explained. Nevertheless, there's no question Jennifer Jason Leigh's polished acting skills demonstrated she's far ahead of everybody in the cast.

Most bothered is I am by the awesome coincidence of a female news anchor living practically a tower away from the serial killer given she's covering the story and he just happened to fall into her lap. Bullshit, and not in Miami. Funnily, it's where people were being killed left and right during the drug wars, and I'm sure the serial killing incidents were the least of everybody's worries. Another downer is the reminders. It's been Friday the 13th and Body Double at some points while it's Wait Until Dark toward the end.

All in all, horror fans will like the gory scenes in Eyes of a Stranger while Jennifer Jason Leigh fans will like her performance.