QT lll MEN, WOMEN & CHAINSAWS - EYES OF A STRANGER
During the first break, I tell Quentin he should bring GODZILLA VS THE SMOG MONSTER to his fest, my personal oddball Toho favorite, the SKIDOO of Godzilla movies. He says he’s been trying to find a really good print. We talk about Japanese monster movies. Hey, it’s Saturday nite at the horror marathon.
Up next is the 1981 slasher/thriller EYES OF A STRANGER, starring The Love Boat’s cruise director, Lauren Tewes, and a young Jennifer Jason Leigh in her film debut, playing a deaf/blind girl traumatized by a childhood abduction. Steve Tipoli plays their pudgy creepy neighbor who also moonlights as a serial rapist killer. With this charming premise comes an above-average, uber-bloody and ultra-sleazy little film that delivers some unsettling thrills and Tom Savini kills.
Tewes is fine as a disc jockey plagued by phone calls from the psychopath, well-played by Tipoli, who is genuinely creepy. Directed with exploitation panache by Ken Wiederhorn who also helmed the nifty SHOCK WAVES from 1977 (about zombie WW II soldiers controlled by Peter Cushing), EYES OF A STRANGER mixes 80’s gore with taut suspense. Though the violence is lovingly dwelled on, the film has its moments. The most powerful and disturbing scene comes when the killer cruelly taunts Leigh by moving objects out of her reach. The audience was vocally disturbed. Happily, it ends on a karmic bloody note for the killer with maximum Savini syrup and latex. And if the Alamo had a shower I would have used it after EYES OF A STRANGER. I just pretend it's 42nd street in 1981. Minus rats.
‘Round midnight. Another welcome break. The crowd relaxes, taking over their seats and space. People walk and stretch, the outside air calm and cool, the theater alley redolent with the hazy aroma of American Spirit and Mary Jane. Sixth Street booms as hundreds of people stream from bar to restaurant to street back to bar. Saturday Night in Texas. Somwhere, “Science Fiction Double Feature” is playing.
Up next...TORSO!
