Eyes of a Stranger

**SPOILERS** Since Jane's, Lauren Tewes, younger sister Tracy, Jennifer Jason-Leigh,was abducted and traumatized when she was a little girl she lost her ability to see speak or hear. This made Jane very protective of Tracy to the point where it interfered with her personal and professional life, Jane is a Miami TV news reporter.

There's this serial murder on the loose in Miami Beach and what terrified Jane is not herself becoming a victim of the killer but her defenseless kid sister Tracy ending up dead because of him. We get to see the killer in action early in the movie when he stalks, on foot and by phone, nightclub dancer Debbie,Gwen Lewis. After getting himself into her apartment the killer decapitates Debbie's boyfriend Jeff, Thimothy Hawkins, and then strangles Debbie with his belt. Within minutes we, the audience, as well as Jane get to see the killer and realize who he his: Stanley Hurbert, John DiSanti, Debbie's and Tracy's next door neighbor.

since we already know who the killer is there's no surprise to his identity but there is a a lot of terror and suspense in the fact that Jane in trying to get the proof that Herbert is the serial killer puts herself, as well as young Tracy, in his sights as his next two victims.

Getting enough evidence on Hubert by breaking into his apartment and getting one of his shoes that from the scene of a triple-murder that he committed. Debbie later gives it to her boyfriend David, Peter DePre, to get checked out by the police lab was enough to get Herbert on Jane tail. When she starts to make annoying and threatening telephone calls Herbert finally realized who she was,by later seeing and hearing Jane on her TV news show, that made him home in on her and her sister like a heat-seeking missile.

Even though both Lauren Tewes and young 19 year-old Jennifer Jason-Leigh were very good, as two of psycho-killer Herbert intended victims, in the movie it was John DiSanti as Stanley Herbert who stole the show as the creepy and at the same time, if you didn't realize who he really was, unsuspecting killer. It wasn't until the last ten or so minutes of the movie when Herbert went wild trying to murder Tracy that he really showed how crazy and murderous he was. Better then you would expect from a B-murder TV-type film even though it wasn't a made for TV the movie,"Eyes of a Stranger" delivers and delivers big.

As a horror-film fan who likes certain types of chillers, I would say this bit of work is solid in atmosphere and fairly gripping at times.The musical score is out of this world, and John DiSanti was brilliant.The directing by Mr.Weiderhorn was very creative and was at the near peak of perfection in capturing the mood and atmosphere of the stalk scenes.I found the conclusion somewhat anti-climatic, but most all else was captivating.This film arrived on the scene right at the high water-mark for slasher-chiller flicks,and it is easily lost in the clutter of all the other famous and even not-so famous films of this genre.Once again the music was delightfully scary.

EYES OF A STRANGER is an effective thriller. It unfortunately does have a TV movie feel/look to it and the slight story takes place only in a couple of apartments and parking lots. But even if there's nothing remotely original or spectacular about it, in the end, I thought it was effective nonetheless. There are a couple of standout scenes, like the head in the fish tank and the scene when the woman is taking a shower and the killer is staring at her with his face pressed against the glass door. Creepy!!! And the scene when Lauren calls the killer is full of tension. The acting by Jennifer Jason Leigh was very good, and to my surprise, even Lauren Tewes was good and nothing like the annoying saccharine character she played on THE LOVE BOAT. I recommend EYES OF A STRANGER to fans of thrillers, slashers or horror films.

(**1/2 out of *****)

"The Love Boat"'s Lauren Tewes and Jennifer Jason Leigh (in one of her first roles) star in this derivative, unpleasant, but not-too-bad movie about a serial rapist-killer who makes obscene and threatening phone calls to his potential victims before murdering them (like in "Black Christmas"). One male victim is decapitated and his head is stuffed in a fish tank (like in "He Knows You're Alone"). Tewes plays a local news anchorwoman who suspects that the tenant in the apartment across the yard from hers is the killer, so she spies on him and conducts her own investigation (like in "Rear Window" and "Sisters"). In spite of the obvious influences from better films and the near-misogynistic depictions of women being stalked, raped and murdered, this movie does manage to generate some genuine suspense here and there, particularly in the frightening climax. Tom Savini did the make-up effects, but it looks like a lot of the potentially bloodier stuff was cut out. Wiederhorn also directed the much-better ‘77 underwater-Nazi-zombie thriller "Shock Waves," which, in this film, is shown playing on television in two different scenes (and, curiously, also features one victim being stuffed in a fish tank -- does this recurring motiff make Wiederhorn some kind of an auteur?)

HIGHLIGHT: Alone in the apartment with Leigh, who plays Tewes' deaf, mute, and blind younger sister, the killer toys with her by moving plates and knives out of her reach while she tries to cut a piece of cake.

It's not bad at all but it has some flaws. What killer leaves his muddy shoes in the closet to be found there by a lady who's living in the same building? Only a stupid killer. What killer throw a shirt dirty with blood in the garbage bin from the garage at the base of the block where he lives? The same stupid killer. But they're all stupid, the killers, since they commit crimes. I wanted to watch this because of Jennifer Jason Leigh. But she has a small role of a deaf-mute almost blind. She's very young, one of her first roles. OK, let's accept that she has a very strong shock, being almost raped by the killer-psychopath and that helps returning her sight and speech. The interesting idea of the movie is the killer watched by the neighbor, tortured by phone, as he watched and tortured his victims. Lauren Tewes looks like Agnetha Fältskog, the blonde of ABBA, and John DiSanti, the killer, looks like Rod Steiger. They are both very good, specially DiSanti.