"EYES OF A STRANGER".......THE GORE,THE MERRIER........

Eyes Of A Stranger (1981)    " 'Raiders Of The Lost Ark' is all out for the night?  Okay.....I guess we'll rent this one......"

                  And that, as we pointed out in a previous post, is how early 1980's video store customers would never leave the store empty handed. Watching an uncut theatrical movie at home was still such an amazing novelty, educated adults of discerning taste could well end up viewing a piece of cheapjack crap like "Eyes Of A Stranger" instead of the big budget blockbuster they hoped for.......

                    So the makers of this junky, nasty little item unexpectedly enjoyed an audience for their film that they'd never imagine in their wildest wet dreams.........people who, if they'd pass by a theater displaying a poster this the movie, would normally roll their eyes in revulsion and disgust.......

                     But they needed something to shove into that bulky $300 VCR they just bought at Radio Shack......

                      Watching an old tape of Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert reviewing this movie, their leniency surprised us. They admired what they considered the slick technique of the film while condemning its content.......consisting of women first terrorized with threatening phone calls, then sexually assaulted and brutally stabbed to death.

                    As far as we could tell, this movie's visuals were no better or worse than the dozens of similar slasher movies it imitated.......featuring muddy photography and amateurish acting from Lauren Tewes (yes, the 'Love Boat' social director) playing a plucky news anchor hot on the trail (a la 'Rear Window') of her serial rapist-killer neighbor.

                       The movie does have a few things going for it.......it introduces a very young Jennifer Jason Leigh as Tewes' teen sister......who's been traumatized into a blind deaf mute since childhood, the result of a pedophile's abduction and attack on her........

                       And heads roll and blood spurts convincingly, thanks to the work of celebrated gore-meister make-up guru Tom Savini. Another plus.......John DiSanti's suitably scary work as the homicidal deviate, a hulking, bispeckled brute who appears modeled from Raymond Burr's character in 'Rear Window'.......

                       But none of these factors lift the movie above the level it stays at -  Grindhouse tripe......serving up the debasement, terror and murder of innocent women as entertainment.....today, movies like this usually only show up in their natural habitat......porn websites......

                        We'll bleed out 1 star (*), but only for the film's status as a 1981 time capsule oddity.....fit only for film historians, hardcore Jennifer Jason Leigh fans,  and horror buff completists.......

                      Anyone else needn't bother.......