(1971/US)
Review By-Cathleen Grado Directed By-Kent Bateman Cast-Bo Brundin, Gordon Ramon, Kelley Swartz and Mary Jane Early. Wizard/Lightning Video/78 Minutes
“He’s Out There........out of sight, and out of his mind!”
“Two Gory for the Silver Screen!” Headless Eyes in an early straight to video horror film from Wizard/Lightning Video. Marketed as “Two Gory for the Silver Screen”, these releases were an easy way to get around the decline of the Grind house and Drive-In Theater era while attempting to get a jump on the new home video market.
I was fortunate to pick up an original giant box encased clamshell copy of Headless eyes at one of the last remaining mom and pop video shops in my area. I had heard of the film before, and marveled at the classic VHS cover artwork. When I saw the sign in the shop saying all VHS for sale, and then discovered this film covered in dust on the top shelf of the miscellaneous section, I knew I had to have it.
Headless Eyes is an extremely low budget picture with an interesting premise. Like Driller Killer, it is set in NYC and deals with the life of a struggling artist. Here, we find ourselves in early seventies Manhattan. In reality the city was close to being completely bankrupt at the time.
Swedish Actor Bo Brundin stars as the artist. Struggling desperately to make ends meet, he resorts to cat burglary in order to make his rent. Unfortunately for him, just as he is about to make his getaway from his victims’ bedroom with some gold jewelry, she awakes and begins to scream. He climbs on top of her and puts his gloved hand on her mouth to try and keep her quiet. This only makes the matter worse. He begs her to please stop screaming, profusely apologizing to her, trying to explain the desperate situation.
We get the genuine impression that this individual is not a bad character, just someone driven to extremes for his own survival. As the struggle becomes more and more desperate, we see the woman reaching towards her bed stand, grasping for some sort of weapon with which to defend herself. We still get no feeling this cat burglar has any intention to do her harm, but her instincts are kicked in. She grabs a spoon off the side table and goes right for the artists’ face, gouging out his eyeball from it’s socket almost immediately.
What follows is an insane scream as the artist backs away towards the window and down the fire escape, eyeball hanging down his face on a large tendon. The screaming never stops till he collapses in pain on the street below, with onlookers watching his quivering body and hanging eye sort of just lying there but still attached. This scene is so over the top it truly borders on comedy.
The film now cuts forward in time. Our artist has been in the hospital recuperating, but his eye was not able to be saved. Eye patch in place, we are introduced to his Manhattan studio/art shop. On display are antique curiosities and his new work, cast eyeballs suspended within clear resin cubes. One-eyed and unable to paint as he once did, our artist has chosen to express himself with these new, macabre and unusual sculpture pieces. When a pretty young female art student stops by the shop, she startles him with her interest in these odd new artworks and they begin a strange friendship which draws the artist out of his new self imposed isolation. The only problem is the pain he still suffers from his wound. The unpredictable physical agony instigates violent attacks which send him into a psychotic state. At these times, he is driven animalisticalLy to seek out attractive young women like the one who attacked him, rendering his own form of revenge by gouging out their eyes and taking them as souvenirs.
Soon our one eyed sculptor’s friendship with the art student brings him more and more out of his shell. Simultaneously, his attacks get more out of control, and he begins to realize the horror of what he is doing. His grotesque urges, however conscious he is becoming of them, are almost impossible for him to resist by this point.
The gore in this film is pretty up front for the time. One can tell they were trying to go for up close eye gouging detail in order to live up to the “Two gory for the silver screen” VHS tagline. By today’s standards, although well done it’s not that extreme. The eyes do look very real, and we certainly see enough of them both during and after the acts of violence. The scenery of a long gone NYC is fantastic as well, we see an abandoned Chelsea, a nearly desolate area near the George Washington bridge and the old red Lighthouse off the Hudson river.
Aside from the gore, there is an element to this film that sets it apart from the rest of the so-called straight to video horror films.
Overlooking the rather bad 16mm grainy look and the slightly stale acting, the dialogue in this film is very interesting. When the artist goes off on an intellectual tangent, as he does often throughout when thinking to himself, he says some really interesting, over the top philosophical things. His voice is very much a stage actor’s voice. One of my favorite bizarre monologues goes as follows, and is spoken over unseen laughter.
“ Like Me You Are Possessed. Tomorrow you will awaken. For this night, this moment, this delusional freedom - behind you. What hidden secrets do you guard and shelter? Where do you keep them? Are you sharing them now? She laughs as you - on the sidewalk as you. Come.”
This would not be nearly as entertaining if not delivered so sincerely. What strange Shatneresque dialogue such as that is doing in a film about stealing eyeballs only makes me love the film even more.
Also, when one of the psychotic attacks are about to begin, the artist goes into a temporary hallucinatory state that is very well articulated by some ingenious, simple camera work.
Directed by Justine and Jason Batemen’s father, Kent Batemen, Headless Eyes makes me wish he had gone on to more experimental cinema rather than such things as Family Ties episodes. There is definite evidence of some strangeness and talent for unusual filmmaking in Headless Eyes. I suppose he just wasn’t given the chance, or possibly lacked the will to explore such nonconformist territory.Headless Eyes is a pretty good film for those who like those rarely seen horror films. It has a fantastic ending and unusual elements you rarely see in low budget horror. For anyone that wished they could still go to places like Times Square in the 1970’s and sit down to a good old fashioned weird old horror movie, this is for you.
Story/Film-4/5 BITCH SLAPS
© 2007 cinema-nocturna.com
