Made back in the early 1980's, on the heels of the horror resurgence, Eyes of a Stranger did it's best to break away from the endless Halloween clones, while still keeping up a level of tension.
It stars the attractive Lauren Tewes (from Love Boat) as a reporter trying to track down and verify the identity of a ruthless killer, played by John DiSanti. Where this movie differs so much from other horror of the era is that DiSanti's identity, and face, are never hidden. You know who he is, and that he did it, from the get-go. Tewes is convinced he's the killer, but no one will believe her (duh, of course not) and there is a confrontation between she and her blind sister (well played by a very young Jennifer Jason Leigh), and DiSanti. Ken Wiederhorn had worked on PBS before this film, and apparently used this film and genre, like so many others tried, to try to break into Hollywood. In all, there are some strong moments of tension, the FX are good, especially for the day (FX master Savini), and Tewes surprised a lot of people with her character (not nearly as sweet and pure as Julie on the Love Boat), but in the end the film never generated much interest and flopped. Hopefully at some point horror fans will make enough of a stir to get it released on DVD.
It stars the attractive Lauren Tewes (from Love Boat) as a reporter trying to track down and verify the identity of a ruthless killer, played by John DiSanti. Where this movie differs so much from other horror of the era is that DiSanti's identity, and face, are never hidden. You know who he is, and that he did it, from the get-go. Tewes is convinced he's the killer, but no one will believe her (duh, of course not) and there is a confrontation between she and her blind sister (well played by a very young Jennifer Jason Leigh), and DiSanti. Ken Wiederhorn had worked on PBS before this film, and apparently used this film and genre, like so many others tried, to try to break into Hollywood. In all, there are some strong moments of tension, the FX are good, especially for the day (FX master Savini), and Tewes surprised a lot of people with her character (not nearly as sweet and pure as Julie on the Love Boat), but in the end the film never generated much interest and flopped. Hopefully at some point horror fans will make enough of a stir to get it released on DVD.