Pyro... The Thing Without a Face (1964) User Reviews

The Phantom of the Ferris Wheel

[wes-connors · 6/10 · 10 March 2010]

First of all, this is an English language film, so the title "Pyro" is appropriate. The film was made in Spain, though; with generous location scenes, it's a lovely setting. But, back to the title. "Pyro" is short for "Pyromaniac", or someone who possesses a compulsive urge to start fires. The lead characters in this film - engineer "Vance Pierson" (Barry Sullivan) and beautiful widow "Laura Blanco" (Martha Hyer) are not pyromaniacs. The motives for starting fires in the story are not those of a pyromaniac. Only little "Isabella" shows a brief moment of "Pyro"-type behavior.

Producer Sidney W. Pink's original title "The Phantom of the Ferris Wheel" was much better.

In flashback… The story is "told" by carnival attendee Fernando Hilbeck (as Julio), who becomes an associate of Mr. Sullivan, an admirer of the "Ferris Wheel". Once introduced, we see Sullivan, who appears to be happily married, meet and succumb to Ms. Hyer's seductive charms. Hyer was a model for aging gracefully, looking better in her 40s than she did in her 20s; with her fiery red shirt and black leather pants, she is irresistible. When Sullivan won't give up his wife and daughter, Hyer decides to play with fire...

The story boils down to one about infidelity and revenge, but there is a slight hint of supernatural possession in the script. Mr. Fink coordinates his "Spanish Gothic" story elements smoothly. Later on, the film adopts elements of horror. Sullivan and Hyer perform admirably, resisting the urge to overact. Mr. Hilbeck and the Spanish supporting cast are outstanding. Watch for a young Soledad Miranda (as Liz) to appear late in the third act. Beautiful women of all types can't seem to keep their hands off Barry Sullivan.

****** Pyro (5/64) Sidney W. Pink : Julio Coll ~ Barry Sullivan, Martha Hyer, Fernando Hilbeck, Soledad Miranda

An Evil MARTHA HYER In A Good Suspense Thriller !!!

[Kelt Smith · 5/10 · 25 October 2000]

Low budget, odd little movie has some chills, and good performances by MARTHA HYER and BARRY SULLIVAN. Laura Blanco (HYER) is a divorcee with a young daughter who has a fling with family man Vince Pierson (SULLIVAN). When his wife finds out, Vince tries to break off from Laura. She, however, has other ideas and believes that if Vince's wife & daughter are out of the way, she'll have him all to herself. Seeing Vince leave his house with wife & daughter still inside upstairs, Laura slips in and splashes gasoline around and sets the house ablaze. She even goes so far as to cut the water off, and attach a container of gasoline to the plumbing. Vince comes back and runs into the burning house to save his family. I can't say anymore without giving away the ending, but the rest is a pretty good thriller. HYER is very good as pure evil Laura. SULLIVAN also does well as Vince. In some ways this movie might remind you of FATAL ATTRACTION 20 years earlier. A stern warning to married men seeking greener pastures. This was one of AMERICAN INTERNATIONAL pictures, low on production dollars, and yet with its creepy plot, still a worthwhile thriller!!!

Flares but never catches. Don't read this if you don't want to know key plot points

[jameselliot-1 · 5/10 · 15 March 2008]

The really interesting thing about the horror films of the 50s and 60s is the amount of implicit kink and perversity that got through the censors of the time, proving that the censors were looking for visual elements to prohibit, not plot points or dialogue. If Pyro had been produced with the same sado-erotic fever as four of the most lurid and salacious horror films ever made around the same time (Psycho, Horrors of the Black Museum, Peeping Tom and Circus of Horrors), Pyro would be a classic today. The beginning of Pyro shows the climax, a huge mistake. Producer/writer Sydney Pink felt Pyro was his best film. There are several excellent flourishes throughout Pyro, a title Mr Pink felt was not commercial for the USA. He wanted to call it Phantom of the Ferris Wheel, which is not much better. (It was titled Phantom of the Ferris Wheel in England where it did good business.) An excellent actor, Barry Sullivan shows the signs of deterioration early in the film when he verbally jousts with firebug Hyer at their first meeting. Her criminal insanity and "hot" temper excites him--this is a woman who screws a total stranger within five minutes of meeting him. Half-way through their affair, she reveals to Sullivan that her daughter is the result of incest with her own father, a revelation dropped as fast as it is delivered. Hyer looks in her mid-30's and since the girl is about ten, the writers leave the door wide open for what actually happened. Very powerful stuff for a movie made in 1961, no matter the country of origin. (How did this get through the Franco-era Spanish censors?) That he has a super-hot wife drives home the point that he has a moral compass in need of repair. Little more than a soap opera, Pyro totally disintegrates in the final 20 minutes. Crazy nymphomaniac Hyer's death is perfunctory and shot in an anti-climatic style although the unmasking scene with Sullivan on top of her is both creepily erotic and horrifically effective. (The burn make-up was excellent.) The closing scene--Sullivan kidnapping the child and going on his Ferris Wheel with cops closing in--is beyond clichéd, boring and routine. The Ferris Wheel climax of Horrors of the Black Museum pre-dates Pyros' similar ending. (The writers must have seen Horrors.) Another mood killer is the horrible travelogue-style music, some of the worst music ever scored for a thriller. It's almost as if the music was lifted from a romantic light comedy and just dropped onto Pyro's audio track, without purpose or understanding. The fire effects were very well done--too bad the demented world of pyromania was never explored in any way. A young Soledad Miranda shows an incredible kittenish sexuality very reminiscent of Yvonne Monlaur in Circus of Horrors. Her inexplicable interest in the masked fugitive Sullivan, a man more than twice her age, is a full circle rotation pointing towards Hyer's involvement with her father. I'd like to see a remake of Pyro in the hands of Eli Roth or Brian Yunza but B-level films like this are just not produced anymore, at least not for theatrical release.

Scared the hell out of me

[duke1907 · 14 February 2004]

I watched this movie one Saturday night on Creature Features when I was about 10-years-old and it scared the hell out of me. I had to climb in bed and sleep with my mother for the rest of the night. I didn't scare easily, I had watched The Exorcist, The Omen and every other horror movie of that day, but this one did it to me. It was the shot where Barry Sullivan reveals his face and it is burned and scarred. It truly was a scary moment for me. I bought the DVD a few years ago and rewatched it. I was 35 and didn't have to go sleep with my mother, but it was still creepy. This is a pretty good movie to seek out. Even 25 years later it still had the ability to creep me out.

Before there was "Fatal Attraction," there was...

[dwr246 · 6/10 · 13 April 2005]

Love is a passion that burns like a fire. So it has been said for centuries. This cautionary tale takes a rather literal view of that assertion, and brings us a surprisingly good thriller.

Vance Pierson (Barry Sullivan) is an engineer who moves to Spain for work related reasons. Accompanying him are his wife Verna (Sherry Moreland), and daughter Sally (oddly, this small part doesn't appear to be credited to the actress who played her). They are a happy family, crammed into a tiny apartment. So Vance decides to buy a house. He goes to look at a rather impressive one, and arrives just in time to stop the owner, Laura (Martha Hyer), from burning it down so she can collect the insurance money. While Vance convinces her that she'll do better with the proceeds from a sale of the house, sparks of a different kind fly between the two of them, and soon they are involved in a passionate affair. However, when first a co-worker, and then Verna learn of the affair, Vance decides it's time to end it. As he is breaking things off with Laura, he makes the mistake of telling her that if it weren't for Verna and Sally, he would be with her. Laura decides that perhaps the best thing to do is to get rid of Verna and Sally, and since she has already mapped out a strategy for burning down the house, she simply waits until Vance has gone out for the evening and Verna and Sally are asleep upstairs, and then she sets fire to it. Vance returns unexpectedly, and runs into the burning house to try to save his wife and daughter. Unfortunately, all he succeeds in doing is getting badly burned himself while Verna and Sally die in the fire. Laura goes to visit Vance in the hospital, and when she confirms Vance's suspicions that she set the fire, he orders her out of his room, telling her that if he ever comes across her again, he'll kill her. Horrified, Laura leaves. The action shifts forward a few years, and Vance, now horribly disfigured, and wearing a mask all the time, is a roustabout with a carnival. For some strange reason, the owner's daughter, Liz (Soledad Miranda) is smitten with him, but given Vance's past, he is understandably unwilling to get involved with her. And then one day the carnival arrives in the town where Laura lives...

Given the setup, this could have been a really cheesy movie, but the writing is surprisingly good, giving the story twists and turns that keep it from becoming predictable, and a few nasty shocks that definitely grab the viewers' attention. Vance's ultimate revenge on Laura is presented in a way that is not satisfying, helping to point out that perhaps revenge was not the right solution to his problems. All in all, a more thoughtful script than one would expect from this kind of movie.

From a production standpoint, the best part of the film was watching Laura set up the fire by splashing gasoline throughout the house, taking the added step up hooking the plumbing up to a gas can, and then setting a fuse to give herself time to get away. When the fire spreads through the house, it is an exciting, if frightening scene. Contrasted with that, the scene where Vance renders Laura unconscious, and sets her apartment on fire is much tamer, helping to make his revenge on her unsatisfying. And the makeup used to show Vance's face when he reveals his disfigurement was also impressive.

The acting is a bit stylized, as was typical of the time period, but overall it is good. Sullivan gives an excellent portrayal of a complex man, delving into the dark corners of the mind of a man who first succumbs to lust, and then is driven by guilt and anger. Hyer's performance sizzles. Her beauty bewitches, and while her actions are deplorable, her regret at the outcome of what she has caused gives you a small amount of sympathy for her. Moreland's betrayed wife is well done, and the uncredited actress who plays Sally turns in a good, if occasionally cloying performance. The only real puzzle is Miranda, who gives us no clue as to what her character's attraction to Vance is all about, thus while her actions speak of good intentions, they make little sense, since we have no context in which to put them.

A dark, cautionary tale, surprisingly well done. A curiosity piece, but one well worth seeing.

A nice, early Spainish horror/thriller

[bensonmum2 · 6/10 · 10 October 2005]

A married man has a torrid affair with the previous owner of the house he has bought for his family. He tries to end the affair, but the woman will have none of that. She sets the house on fire killing his wife and child. Burned beyond recognition, the man vows revenge against his former lover.

Overall, Pyro is a nice little horror/thriller. The plot, although predictable, is generally well paced and only gets bogged down by the love story on one or two brief occasions. It's the predictability that keeps me from rating Pyro much higher. There are a few chills to be had like the scene where the woman runs in fear down a deserted street at night, afraid that her disfigured lover is about the catch-up with her. The acting is a notch or two above what I have seen in other early Spanish horror films. Both Barry Sullivan and Martha Hyer give excellent performances in the lead roles. Hyer, in particular, is wonderful as the scheming, murderous ex-lover. Finally, the burn make-up is effectively creepy. It's the stuff of nightmares.

A couple bits of trivia – first, apparently Pyro was the first horror/thriller movie to be filmed in Spain. Whether it's true or not, I don't know. I just thought it was interesting. Second, cult fans may be interested in catching Pyro to see a young, pre-Franco Soledad Miranda in a small role. She doesn't do much, but she has a presence about her that's unmistakable.

Obscure Spanish-American horror outing with more than a few nods to the classics

[Leofwine_draca · 5/10 · 3 November 2016]

PYRO...THE THING WITHOUT A FACE is an obscure American-financed horror flick shot in Spain with a Spanish cast and crew and an American leading actor. Said actor is none other than old timer Barry Sullivan (VIOLENT NAPLES) playing a Ferris wheel repairman of all things, whose seemingly perfect life falls into disarray when he begins an affair with an unstable woman.

What follows is a tempestuous story of romance, revenge, tragedy, and retribution, yet it's all done on a very low budget which robs the film of its impact. It's also a derivative work which reminded me of HOUSE OF WAX and HORROR OF THE BLACK MUSEUM in places although it doesn't have much of the impact of either of those two classic horror flicks.

Sullivan is an okay actor but he has little to work with in his one-dimensional role here. The supporting cast are quite average although future Euro starlet Soledad Miranda, who would be killed in a car accident at the outset of her burgeoning cult career six years later, has a central role in the latter half of the proceedings. As a film, this just about gets by with a few Gothic moments and a couple of decent fiery set-pieces, but it's obscure for good reason, which is that it's simply not very good.

Vance plays with fire.

[BA_Harrison · 7/10 · 5 August 2017]

Ferris wheel obsessed engineer Vance Pierson (Barry Sullivan) moves with his wife and daughter to Spain to work on a hydroelectric dam. While house-hunting, Vance meets sexy blonde Laura Blanco (Martha Hyer) as she is about to torch her run-down property for the insurance money. Instead, Vance buys the place, and subsequently starts a steamy affair with the woman. When Vance's conscience eventually kicks in and he decides to end his relationship with Laura, she flips out and sets fire to Vance's home—with his wife and child still inside. Vance rushes to their rescue, but he is too late to save them, and suffers severe burns in the process. When Laura pays him a visit in hospital, the disfigured engineer swears to hunt down Laura and her daughter, no matter where they run to.

Part Fatal Attraction style thriller, part twisted revenge horror, Pyro… The Thing Without a Face is nowhere near as cheesy as the title suggests. In fact, it is a surprisingly dark tale, dealing as it does with infidelity, betrayal, madness, murder, and even a hint of incest for good measure (Laura's comment that her daughter's father was her own father is quite the shocker). Vance, covered from head to foot in bandages, telling Laura to 'take her family and hide' is effectively chilling, as is watching him as he makes good on his word. I only wish that the ending had been as bold: rather than sparing Laura's daughter, I'd love to have seen Vance throw himself off the ferris wheel with the little girl in his arms. That would have made for an unforgettable and more fitting downbeat finale.

Tight, terrific horror thriller co-produced by Spain/USA with big name cast giving nice interpretation

[ma-cortes · 7/10 · 15 July 2020]

A married man named Vance Pierson (an aged Barry Sullivan , though Vincent Price was firstly slated for the character) has a brief affair with a beautiful blonde divorcee called Laura Blanco (Marta Hyer) , but he doesn't want to continue their relationship and returns to his spouse Verna Pierson (Sherry Moreland ) and 10 year-old daughter . Laura's obsession knows no bounds and she becomes increasingly violent , putting Vance's life - and that of his family's - in danger. She begins to threaten him with possesive and violent acts . This unsettling mistress, believing that if he had no more family he'd come back to her, sets fire to his house, hoping to kill them. The man, unsuccessfully attempting to rescue them, is horribly burned . After he undergoes an operation to reconstruct his face. PURE FEMALE every gorgeous inch of her...yet the strange desire that feeds on her cannot be quenched by love alone! Look at this "man" and BEWARE! There is nothing human about him except his desires! See The Thing Without A Face

Intriguing and creepy film with suspense , thrills , chills and terrifying scenes . It has a plot similar to Fatal attraction by Adrian Lyne , adding eerie elements . As a happily married has an affair with a disturbing woman resulting in unexpected and fateful consequences , then the family man starts to plot a merciless vengeance against his former jilted mistress and he will stop at nothing to have his relentless vendetta , as tension is slowly but surely built up . An expertly made , manipulative thriller , one of the most unknown films of the Sixties. This movie had memorable moments that have stayed with us who first saw it at the theater long years ago . A successful change of roles for Barry Sullivan and Martha Hyer , especially the latter as the sexy , scorned and deadly other woman . Both actors do a superb job in here , but kudos also to the rest of the cast as Luis Prendes as Police Inspector , Fernando Hilbeck as Pierson's colleague , Carlos Casaravilla , Hugo Pimentel and special mention for Soledad Miranda , Jesus's Franco muse , and who , unfortunately died early by car accident at 27 .

Colorful and evocative cinematography in Eastmancolor and Panacolor by Manuel Berenguer shot on location in Viveiro, Lugo, Galicia, Spain. However , being really necessary a perfect remastering .This motion picture "Phantom of the Ferris Wheel" or ¨Pyro... The Thing Without a Face¨ or ¨A Cold Wind from Hell¨ or ¨Wheels of fire¨well written/produced by Sidney W. Pink and was professionally directed by Julio Coll , it had an uneven hit , it bombed in some overseas countries , in others was a blockbuster and in Spain had a certain success . Winning some Spanish prizes as Winner Prize of the National Syndicate of Spectacle : Best Music : José Solá . Filmmaker Julio Coll had an important career , being expert on ¨Noir film¨ , he started collaborating in more than 30 scripts , as the classic ¨Apartado De Correos 1001¨(50) by Julio Salvador . His best works were at the beginning his career as ¨Nunca Es Demasiado Tarde¨ , ¨Carcel De Cristal¨, ¨Un Vaso De Whisky¨ and ¨Los Cuervos¨ in which there is social drama , intriguing elements and solid dramatic narrative . In 1958 he created the production company ¨Juro Film¨ with whom he writes , produces and directs his films . As he shoots ¨La Cuarta Ventana¨ (61) , ¨Ensayo General De La Muerte¨ and ¨Los Muertos No Perdonan¨ (63) . Julio , subsequently , made international co-productions as ¨Fuego¨ with Barry Sullivan , ¨Comando De Asesinos¨ with Peter Van Eyck , ¨Persecución Hasta Valencia¨ with Tom Tryon and the historical ¨La Araucana¨ with Elsa Martinelli and based on Luis De Camoens book until his death at 73. Rating : 6.5/10 . Decent and acceptable horror thriller .

A much better than expected export from Spain

[planktonrules · 8/10 · 29 July 2008]

When I saw that this film appeared to be a Spanish horror movie, I had very, very low expectations--as Spanish horror of the 60s and 70s typically is very high on the "cheese factor". However, it turned out that this really wasn't a horror film AND it was a pretty good film regardless where it was made. My only real complaint about all this is that in this era, practically all the foreign films were dubbed into English before coming here. While I must admit that the dubbing was excellent (far better than usual), my being an annoying purist makes me always want to see a captioned film. Plus, as the film starred American actor Barry Sullivan (and he used English throughout), then I guess they had no choice. It was a very common practice in Spain and Italy to get American actors and then dub them or the rest of the cast. Such luminaries as Burt Lancaster, Broderick Crawford, and Richard Basehart made such films.

The plot of the film is a lot like the later FATAL ATTRACTION, as a husband has an affair with an unstable woman and later the unstable woman attacks the man's family. In this case, the lady decides that if the man's family is dead, then he will return to her and they can marry! So, she sets the family home on fire when he is gone, though he returns prematurely and is also burned badly in the fire--so much for the plan. While the family is killed, the husband swears vengeance on her and soon afterwords disappears from the hospital.

For quite some time, the police vainly look but there is no trace of the man. However, several extended family members of the arsonist mistress are killed in fires and the police are convinced that she will be next---though she, too, has disappeared out of fear for her life.

Now as I said above, the film turned out to be very good, though there were two things working against it. First, the doctors described Sullivan's burns as being so severe he didn't look human. However, later when you see him he looks pretty normal and like his old self (aside from his hands) yet when the police and an old friend see him, they don't even recognize him! So apparently, his friend was an idiot. Second, while I liked the film a lot, the second half was a tad disappointing as it went on too long. The time from the fire to the conclusion was a bit too much and would have benefited from being a tad shorter. Still, the ending was very good and it was a good film overall. It must have, to a degree, influenced the makers of FATAL ATTRACTION--they are THAT similar.

First seen on Pittsburgh's Chiller Theater in 1967

[kevinolzak · 6/10 · 14 September 2020]

1963's "Pyro" is a Spanish title known as "Fuego" (Fire) in Spain, more broadly known as "Pyro - The Thing Without a Face" or "Pyro - Man Without a Face," or "Phantom of the Ferris Wheel" (its most appropriate moniker). Producer Sidney W. Pink, previous purveyor of "The Angry Red Planet," "Reptilicus," and "Journey to the Seventh Planet," first conceived of the script as "A Cold Wind from Hell" (this would be his favorite film), AIP once more footing the bill for international production, their contract star Vincent Price up for the role of Vance Pierson shortly after his visit to freezing Rome for "The Last Man on Earth." Perhaps his busy Hollywood schedule resulted in a casting change that enabled Barry Sullivan to accept, not so charismatic but playing a part that requires as much with at least three potential female lovers on hand. Despite being advertised as a horror film (and a flop in the US), the picture certainly doesn't play out that way, the carnival music opening showing us Pierson's family life coinciding with his engineering work, requiring him to move to Spain to begin construction of a circular generator (he displays a passion for all things round). While searching for suitable accommodations he comes upon an estate that looks promising, only its pyromaniac owner, supposed widow Laura Blanco (Martha Hyer), already has a full proof plan devised to burn the whole thing down to collect the insurance money. Before you can even perceive 'playing with fire,' he's falling into bed with this crazy pyromaniac mother, a literally burning affair that goes on for five months, to the obvious consternation of Pierson's wife (Sherry Moreland) and daughter (Pilarin Gomez). He rationalizes all of this to his own, self involved satisfaction: "my home has always been too peaceful, home sweet home, you are war...as long as we keep peace at home, I'll be needing violence!" Careful what you wish for Vance, because once you decide to end this relationship, your firebug playmate just won't take it lying down, replaying her original intention to now torch the house with his wife and child asleep inside. Setting out on a business meeting before a proper reconciliation, his partner wisely turns back, only too late to save the deceased, poor Vance forced to leap from his bedroom window completely engulfed in flames that produce fourth degree burns that no surgeon can restore to normalcy (shades of Peter Lorre in "The Face Behind the Mask"). Why Laura isn't immediately arrested and put away goes unexplained, her impromptu visit to him at the hospital allowing him the opportunity to swear vengeance by doing to her family what she did to his, after which he vanishes for 15 months. Reports of Laura's mother and maid perishing in a fire have authorities wondering if Pierson is beginning to make good on his threat, now posing as all around mechanic Peter, moving all about as part owner of a traveling carnival where he manages the ferris wheel with help from his partner's daughter Liz Frade (Soledad Miranda). How his human mask closely resembles his former features, and why none of the investigators recognize him is also a mystery, but he does locate his lover's island hideaway, living with a daughter who shows the same dangerous habits as her fiery mother (like John Huston and Faye Dunaway in "Chinatown," incest is suggested but never truly confirmed for we learn nothing about the missing father or dead husband). The entire first half takes its time setting up the pivotal moment when Laura's insane plot bears fruit, the second half inexplicably trying to turn this obviously psychotic murderess into a frightened victim.

An offbeat horror story that will hold your interest

[Mikel3 · 2 February 2016]

This is a strange story of infidelity, horror and revenge. I wouldn't say it was a great movie, it did hold my interest and there were some very scary moments in it. After a certain point when the revenge started...it was predictable. I'd compare it to 'House of Wax' in some ways. I rate it a 5 out of 10 for the acting by the leads and the off-beat story. Barry Sullivan was good and he delivered some very chilling lines, especially when he was telling his former mistress to run while she could. It's a film with the type of plot more often found in Spanish, Mexican or Italian made films of that time. It's not like the standard run of the mill USA/UK type horror films made back then.

Burn, baby, burn!

[melvelvit-1 · 8/10 · 29 September 2006]

Pre-dating FATAL ATTRACTION by decades, this proto-giallo depicts the nightmare Vance Pierson free-falls into when he breaks off his extramarital affair with sizzling (and mentally unbalanced) Laura Blanco. Before he leaves for good, Laura asks him one fatal question: If you weren't committed, would you stay with me? He answers yes and all hell breaks loose...

Barry Sullivan and Martha Hyer were durable contract players in Hollywood for well over a decade before filming FUEGO (aka PYRO) and their considerable talents add immeasurably to the tale. Vance and Laura are Americans living in Spain and find themselves immediately drawn to each other. Vance is an engineer, transferred to Galacia to build a dam, while Laura, her life at a dead-end, is ready to cut her losses and move on. Vance knows he's wrong to pursue a sexual affair with her, not only because it would devastate his wife (nicely played for sympathy by Sherry Moreland), but because he also knows exactly what she is. When she tells him she's never loved anyone, he sardonically asks "Have you ever tried?" She lets that slide because she thinks she's finally found "the one". Laura has the same sensuous sex appeal Hyer gave to her role of prostitute Jennie Denton in THE CARPETBAGGERS the previous year. All fire and ice, her Laura is a scorching pyromaniac, undulating in platinum hair, skin-tight black leather pants and hot-pink top. Vance first sees her this way when he catches her trying to torch her house for the insurance money and falls for her, right then and there, completely forgetting he's married with children. There's also an excellent supporting cast including a very young Soledad Miranda (as Liz) as a small-time carnival cookie who temporarily tempts Vance away from his macabre dance of death with Laura. Fernando Hilbeck plays Julio, a friend and co-worker of Vance's who tries to warn him about how dangerous Laura is. Julio ought to know because he was involved with her before Vance became ensnared in her web.

PYRO is also very Eurotrashy ...the way most gialli are. There's lots of nasty little touches put in for apparently no good reason. When Vance admires a picture of her daughter, Laura turns away, saying "Her father was my father." Later, when she catches her daughter igniting matches in a field, her daughter cries out "I'm not doing anything wrong, mommy!" What are we to make of this? That Laura's special brand of insanity is genetic? This film has all the ingredients of a great giallo. There's a gloved killer (more than one actually) and obsessive love and vengeance as motive. When Vance, horribly scarred and near death from the burns he received from trying (and failing) to save his family from the fire Laura purposely set (in an especially chilling scene), he whispers to her from his hospital bed: "Run! Hide!! Take your family and HIDE!!!" An eye for an eye.... The convoluted voice-over in the beginning by Julio is an existential bit of mumbo-jumbo about fate and the ferris wheel. Vance has a special affinity for ferris wheels and gets, fittingly, a job with a traveling carnival once he escapes from the hospital to avenge himself on Laura. The film begins and ends atop one and the dam Vance and Julio are working on is built on it's revolving principals. There's even a little toy ferris wheel on the nightclub table when Vance breaks if off with Laura. It's not hard to get the symbolism: What goes around, comes around...

With a little more care and effort, this film could have been amazing. If the (second) killer's identity had been hidden from the audience awhile longer and a few more grisly murders of Laura's friends and family had been added, director Julio Coll would have been in competition with Mario Bava (who just filmed BLOOD AND BLACK LACE) as to who really made the first giallo. As it stands, PYRO is atmospheric, involving, creepy and sick. Guaranteed to induce nightmares in the impressionable and well worth checking out. You'll flip for red-hot Martha Hyer. Just don't get too close...what a smokin' way to BURN!

Enthralling film, great suspense and actors!

[inkybrown · 10 January 2002]

Engineer Vance Pierson moves to Spain, where he will oversee the construction of his invention: a generator shaped like a ferris wheel. He meets a desperate young woman, Laura, who is trying to burn down her home for the insurance money she so badly needs. He stops the woman and they become passionate lovers. But soon Vance wants to end the affair he's having with Laura and go back to his wife and daughter. The jilted mistress flares up into a jealous rage and gets revenge on Vance...and he makes it his mission in life to get his own revenge on her. Barry Sullivan and Martha Hyer are excellent as the leads. Cult star Soledad Miranda appears as Liz, the daughter of a carnival worker, who falls for a mysterious older man. This was the first movie to have a $50 million set (Spain's Belesar Dam). Additionally, it was the first horror suspense movie filmed in Spain. It also was the first movie ever to be filmed in the province of Galicia, which is in northern Spain.

Run, Laura! Run!!

[richardchatten · 8/10 · 22 July 2017]

Made in Spain just before 'Blood and Black Lace' but remarkably little known today considering the amount of attention perennially lavished upon Italian gialli. I'd been keen to see this film for over forty years and ironically found it on YouTube at the very moment when the London papers were full of the Grenfell Tower fire disaster in North Kensington on 14 June 2017 and a revolting spate of gratuitous acid attacks by thieves in East London.

Like Takashi Miike's 'Audition' (1999) this film is - if you'll pardon the description - a slow burner that has almost hit the halfway mark before the key plot development that most viewers will already have known about in advance finally kicks in; especially when the film has a title like 'Pyro'.

Aided by a literate script and good performances, the early scenes are actually working extremely well purely as an engrossing marital drama in its own right. (It also casually throws in occasional bombshells such as the paternity of Hyer's young daughter which make you wonder what else was in the original script or didn't make the final cut.) But anticipating what is coming inevitably makes it feel like watching an episode of 'Casualty', steeling yourself for what in this context you know is coming.

Sullivan is excellent both before and after the life-changing injuries he suffers. While later lying low the way Sullivan carries himself, his subtly immobile face and obvious wig disturbingly suggests the wreckage concealed beneath his disguise; although as usual what we eventually see when he pulls his mask off - although pretty well done - doesn't come close to the horror promised us earlier by the doctor describing his burns. Hyer is excellent too, her handsome blonde-maned good looks - enhanced by leather gear provided by Mitzou of Madrid - seeming in this context almost indecent.

"Everything Looks Better From Up High!"...

[azathothpwiggins · 23 July 2021]

In PYRO... THE THING WITHOUT A FACE, Vance and Verna Pierson (Barry Sullivan and Sherry Moreland) are the happily married parents of a lovely daughter. Vance is a successful engineer, spending his off hours searching for his dream home.

One day, Vance stumbles upon a house where a woman named Laura (Martha Hyer) is about to commit arson. The two hit it off, and an affair ensues. Things get complicated when Vance decides to break it off. Laura's not ready for this, and her firebug ways reemerge with horrific results.

This movie is a grim story of fiery death, anguish, and vengeance. Sullivan is very convincing in his tortured, sympathetic role. His singular mission isn't merely revenge. He's trying to blot out the agony of what happened to his family. An agony that can't be extinguished.

This film deserves to be more widely known...