Eyes of a Stranger (1981) User Reviews

Do you get that feeling you're being watched?

[lost-in-limbo · 7/10 · 20 February 2007]

A series of gruesome sex murders is plaguing a coastal community of Miami and the police seem to be well behind the eight ball. Jane, a local TV news reader urges viewers each time a murder happens to ring up with any sort of information to catch this killer. This really strikes a nerve with her, as her blind and deaf sister Tracy who she lives with was raped and left for dead when she was a child. Causing this traumatic condition. After some unusual coincidences, Jane starts to suspect her neighbour Stanley Herbert might be behind the murders.

After making the sorely underrated 70s horror gem "Shock Waves" (which appears in the film in a couple of shots focusing on a TV), director Ken Wiederhorn returns back to the genre with an low-budget Hitchcock inspired thriller, which to fit the trend of the times it also threw in many 80s slasher traits. While derivatively clichéd and filled with some implausible scenarios, it's still well made and actually can be creepy, suspenseful and at times a clever exercise in familiarity. The voyeuristic plot, yep it's got one. Rings true to "Rear Window (1954)" and even "Wait Until Dark (1967)". The killer's identity is brought up quite early, so there's no surprise there and through flashbacks we actually see what happened to Tracy. Which goes a long way to show how hard it hit Jane and the guilt that plagues her with her involvement in getting this predator. The characters here are capable of looking after themselves and have good judgement of common sense.

After a strong opening half and being realistically staged in parts, it then it falls away gradually and becomes the run-of-the-mill stalk and slash vehicle that simply leaves you waiting for it cracking conclusion. What little substance it generates is broken up by the ridiculously nonthreatening phone calls taunting his victims and its random acts of unpleasant violence. Make-up artist Tom Savini is the master behind the death-sequences and crafts some good effects. While, one or two moments stand out, sadly most of the scenes were off camera or were cut out. The suspenseful situation really does lose out to the basic slasher set-ups and seedy intentions of its material. Wiederhorn's tight direction is sturdily achieved and he doesn't go at a cracking pace. The grimly washed-out look of the film enhances the eerily sordid atmosphere. The moody lighting, Richard Einhorn and Red Neinkirchen's ominously alarming electronic music score and leering camera-work by Mini Rojas simply soaked up the encroaching menace of a city plagued by a vicious killer. The cast provide spot-on performances. An effectively worthy Lauren Tewes (Love Boat fame) gives it her all as the gusty TV news reader Jane and the delightfully stunning Jennifer Jason Leigh in her first major screen role plays it accordingly assured as the blind/death Tracy. Looking the part, John DiSanti's lumbering physic and unnerving attitude is rather convincing as the murderer.

It's nothing out of the ordinary and it can get contrived, but it's well-made and provides potently active lead performances.

Unspectacular but effective

[Maciste_Brother · 7/10 · 8 October 2003]

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.

Julie, your cruise director, becomes Julie, your vigilante.

[Hey_Sweden · 7/10 · 16 February 2013]

"Eyes of a Stranger" is a decent, overlooked slasher that takes place in sunny Miami. A depraved sex murderer is hard at work eliminating the female population, and a hard- driving TV news anchor, Jane Harris (Lauren Tewes of 'The Love Boat' fame) is determined to do something about it, especially when she comes to believe that the killer is actually one of her own neighbours, the bespectacled, corpulent Stanley Herbert (John DiSanti). He's been phoning his victims as a prelude to his crimes, but he soon has the tables turned on him as *she* harasses him with calls. But Stanley soon has another victim in mind, Janes' own sister Tracy (Jennifer Jason Leigh, making her film debut), who's deaf, dumb, and blind because she's *already* had a traumatic past encounter with a predator.

Admittedly, this *is* trashy stuff, but should prove to be adequate entertainment for slasher aficionados. Not that it stands out in the genre in terms of style or content, because it doesn't, but it's still reasonably well done. Director Ken Wiederhorn establishes a respectably creepy atmosphere and gets some great use out of the various locations.

In one twist, Stanley dumps a victim at the beach, where he promptly gets his car stuck, and when an annoyed lovebird who happens to be nearby shows up to give the car a push, it provides Stanley with another handy two victims. An early scene is also amusing for containing a "severed head in the fishtank" gag, just as "He Knows You're Alone", another slasher from the same period, did. Late in the movie, there's one very sinister sequence when Stanley is in the Harris apartment and toys with Tracy by moving objects in and out of her reach.

Tom Savini supplies the makeup effects, which are good but for the most part not among his best work (the final blood soaked sequence is pretty nice, though). For the voyeurs, there are some choice breast shots. One very effective element is the excellent music score by the under-rated composer Richard Einhorn; it's quite scary. The acting is fine from the principals: Tewes is convincing as the impassioned older sister, Leigh is appealing as the younger one, DiSanti is incredibly effective as the murdering cretin, and Peter DuPre does a decent job as Janes' attorney boyfriend. Look for 'Flipper' star Luke Halpin in a bit as a tape editor, and watch out for scenes from Wiederhorns' spooky low budget flick "Shock Waves" (which had co-starred Halpin) playing on TV.

This was one of only three productions for the short lived company Georgetown, whose other credits were the first two "Friday the 13th" pictures.

Seven out of 10.

Interesting but a little bit slow!

[RodrigAndrisan · 7/10 · 15 August 2018]

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.

A Cut Above

[Tender-Flesh · 7/10 · 26 May 2011]

Going into this film, I didn't know anything about it, other than Savini did the effects, which is, of course, the reason I watched. Up until this point, this under-discussed film wasn't even on my radar and I only came upon the title recently. Glad to see it's finally available uncut.

However, speaking of uncut, which is always the most important issue to me when watching any film, I found the effects to be rather subdued and maybe, given the nature of the film, that's the point.

Jane is a news anchor. Her little sister, Tracy, was abducted and sexually abused at a young age, leaving her with unusual mental scars that affected her sight, speech, and hearing. Tracy lives with Jane in a large high-rise apartment complex near the bay. Recently, a weirdo has been stalking women, raping them, and, perhaps simultaneously, strangling them. A similar stalker is found in the film, Don't Answer the Phone, however, Eyes of a Stranger is a better overall film, even with subdued gore and sexual violence. The unusual aspect of this film is not only does Jane and the killer live in the same complex, she suspects him while he isn't even aware of her, other than perhaps knowing she's on the news. She is not one of his intended victims, he doesn't follow or call her. So, in a crazy twist, she starts calling him, smoking a cigarette as if she's just done the deed, all the while taunting him on the phone in the same manner he's done to several of his victims.

It's a fun cat and mouse game, where at times it seems as if there are two cats. The rape scenes are not overly aggressive and a few cut throats and a gunshot wound are all we get from Tom Savini. However, I do recommend this one if you want something a little different, and, perhaps, a little more realistic. The killer isn't your typical hack and slash, like so many 80's killers. He's just a guy. Someone you pass every day or maybe you bought insurance from him. That makes it scarier. Enjoy.

The "invincible killer" trope demystified

[redskiesmaxx · 30 December 2020]

**A FEW SPOILERS**

I'd recommend "Eyes of a Stranger", a nearly forgotten slasher-style suspense thriller from 1980 that has the distinction of being the film debut of Jennifer Jason Leigh (who gives a terrific performance as a blind, deaf and mute teenager who must fight off an assailant inside her apartment like Audrey Hepburn in "Wait Until Dark"), and which also features gore effects by the legendary Tom Savini.

Set in and around Miami (just like director Ken Wiederhorn's earlier Nazi zombie feature "Shock Waves" -- clips of which appear on the television set during the first murder scene), "Eyes of a Stranger" is basically an update of "Rear Window" embellished with references to a number of other suspense thrillers. The opening scene, in which the nude body of a murder victim is discovered immersed in a mangrove swamp, is a direct nod to the opening of Hitchcock's "Frenzy"; and a much later scene, in which the killer furtively watches a striptease dancer undress before (it is implied) he attacks her in a shower stall, is a clear homage to "Psycho".

"Eyes of a Stranger" starts off with the classic slasher premise established by "Black Christmas": the creepy serial killer who stalks and terrorizes young women with harassing phone calls before he finishes them off in person. Despite a trail of bodies with a common M. O., there is no hint of any police investigation in the movie. Likewise, none of the women have any male protectors who can save them from the killer, and the ones who try just end up as hapless collateral damage -- including one particularly memorable (and gruesomely funny) image of a severed head in a fish tank, which is itself a direct steal from the then-contemporary 1980 slasher thriller "He Knows You're Alone".

In terms of its storytelling, "Eyes of a Stranger" is split into two distinct halves: in latter part, the movie deliberately alters and undermines its earlier narrative focus and becomes a different sort of genre picture than the standard slasher exploitation fare, as the killer becomes the person who is spied upon and harassed in his apartment by an inquisitive neighbor (again, think "Rear Window"). By this point, we see that the killer, as ruthless and determined as he is, is not some indestructible bogeyman like Michael Myers, Jason Vorhees, or the later Freddy Krueger. Instead, he is revealed to be quite fallible and vulnerable, especially when confronted by the female protagonist (played by Lauren Tewes), who, earlier in the movie, is seen risking her life by breaking into his apartment to search for clues (just like Grace Kelly did in "Rear Window"). For this reason, "Eyes of a Stranger" has been considered a quasi-feminist "rape-revenge" vigilante film (in his book, "Hollywood from Vietnam to Reagan ...and Beyond", the late British critic Robin Wood wrote an especially spirited defense of this movie along those particular lines).

The first half of "Eyes of a Stranger" generally conforms to all the familiar narrative clichés of the slasher genre by presenting us with the image of a serial murderer who appears to be endowed with the superhuman powers of an omniscient and ubiquitous bogeyman. This hackneyed "invincible killer" trope is an unmistakable feature of the first two murder scenes, where the killer's presence is only hinted at metonymically -- as a disembodied voice on the phone, as a masked silhouette lurking in the darkness, or in closeup shots of his feet following his prey or his hands brandishing a weapon. Here, we see the killer stalking and entrapping his victims with all the practiced stealth and finesse of a ninja assassin -- an extraordinary ability which the movie doesn't bother to explain or justify in any plausible way. As we watch these scenes play out, our suspension of disbelief waxes and wanes and we are left wondering to ourselves: how did he get inside that apartment or sneak into the back of that woman's car, or obtain the emergency phone number for that elevator?

However, about halfway through "Eyes of a Stranger", the movie's contrived illusion of an omnipotent killer endowed with superhuman competence is quickly and permanently abolished. This demystification first occurs during a scene where his tires get stuck in the mud while disposing of his latest victim, and he is forced to dispatch two potential witnesses who are making out in the car next to him. Here we begin to see that this killer is hardly very subtle or discreet in the way he goes about his business. Careless and impulsive, he doesn't seem to have that much common sense, let alone any sophisticated forensic awareness, about escaping detection or (literally) covering his tracks. All throughout the movie, we see him repeatedly stalk and attack women in apartment complexes and car parks -- semi-public spaces where his suspicious comings and goings could easily be noticed (and eventually are). In fact, he is so sloppy and disorganized that it seems the temporary success of his killing spree can only be attributed to dumb luck and a curious absence of any police vigilance and deterrence. By this point, we come to realize that under normal circumstances, he could be caught in the act at any time.

It doesn't take long before the killer's luck finally does run out, and when we at last see him as he really is, his pale expressionless face, portly frame and slouching gait expose him as the very image of a rather depressing ungainliness and ordinariness (much like Raymond Burr's pitifully inept and desperate uxoricide in "Rear Window"). In the end, there is nothing the least bit impressive, clever, seductive, mysterious or otherworldly about this killer. If anything, he appears dull, clumsy, slovenly, unattractive and very, very common. Indeed, it is in this way that the more fanciful and dubious conceits of the genre are deliberately undermined, and any semblance of the sadistic relish and artfully evinced horror atmosphere that slasher movie enthusiasts may have once admired about the killer during the staging of his earlier murders is rapidly and purposefully dissipated.

This undermining of the "invincible killer" trope is most clearly demonstrated during a brief scene toward the end of the movie in which no physical violence occurs at all. Here, we see the killer stripped of any theatrical pretense of devilish glamour or mystery -- his pudgy plain face and flabby middle-aged physique now fully visible in clear light -- as he casually torments a blind teenager by removing familiar objects from her reach on a kitchen counter. I imagine that the banal viciousness and petty psychological cruelty of this otherwise harmless act was more upsetting and disturbing for most viewers than any of the physically gruesome murder scenes in this movie (which are, of course, standard for the genre and are, alas, to be expected).

As the late Robin Wood astutely observed, the culmination of this studied demystification of the mad-slasher bogeyman occurs in the last reel of "Eyes of a Stranger", when the killer suddenly meets his violent and ignominious end in a shower stall (an inversion of the earlier "Psycho" reference), and the final lingering image of his broken glasses perched crookedly on his bloated lifeless face, with eyes now permanently shut from a fatal bullet wound in his forehead, seems not only a stunning reversal of fortune but a moralistic indictment of anyone in the audience who took a portion of vicarious pleasure in the movie's preceding mayhem.

Sleazy kill spree worth catching

[fertilecelluloid · 7/10 · 17 January 2008]

"Eyes Of A Stranger" is a slasher with a mean streak. Its killer is an overweight sleazeball rapist (John DiSanti) who is shot in plain view. The film is not a mystery, a whodunit, or a gore-fest. Director Ken Wiederhorn, who was responsible for the highly original and atmospheric "Shock Waves", has a solid style and creates some effective suspense sequences. Tom Savini handles the gore chores, and delivers a couple of grisly sequences including a knife thrust into a throat and a very authentic beheading (shot through a fish tank). The pacing slackens towards the end and the script offers no surprises. Lauren Tewes (from TV's "Love Boat") plays a TV presenter who learns that the killer is living in her apartment building. Her semi-blind sister (played by young and sexy Jennifer Jason Leigh), who is shown in flashback being abducted as a child, ends up being victimized by DiSanti in "Blind Terror" style. Warners released this film in the very early Eighties when cinemas were filled with knife-wielding psychos. For a dose of sleaze, this is worth catching.

A pretty good thriller.I saw better but worse and Lauren nailed it!

[seve072 · 7/10 · 10 November 2017]

Lauren Tewes who accustomed me to the role of Cruise director in the love boat series is quite good and surprising in this thriller "The eyes of a stranger".What a complete change! In love boat she is funny but light and a bit goody goody ,the innocent Julie mc coy who always smiles and waits for the charming prince. Here she isn't sentimental at all and that's a very good surprise! She is a news reporter who inquires about crimes and rapes and at the beginning we can sense that she is very focused and doesn't have time to have fun because of a serial killer who slaughters women and who lives opposite her flat. Moreover Jane feels very concerned and responsible of her sister who was raped and attacked when she was a little girl,which appears in a flashback when Jane is into her car looking at a yellow school coach and as a result the poor sister became blind and deaf because of the shock and unable to see and hear.She is traumatized because of this sordid event and wants to protect her sister played by Jennifer Jason Leigh who was very convincing in the role.It is a very sad condition for her and she cannot think about her future from a positive point of view.She will have to tutor her sister definitely. The killer appears very quickly in the story when Jane is in her car in a parking lot and she hides ,terrified to the idea of being discovered but i must admit that i found her a bit foolish and not wise enough when she decided to call the killer to tell him she knew who he was.She took a big risk and fortunately everything ends well for her and young sister blind who shots the scary guy but was it necessary to show her boobs and focus about them? I was quite puzzled near the end when Helen looks at herself in the bathroom mirror,which means she gained her sight again. This is a movie to be seen at least once but not so horrific as i expected it could be.It is sometimes gore especially at the beginning but there is not much violence in it. It is sometimes oppressive and the atmosphere is heavy and tense ..I liked this movie especially for the performance of Lauren tewes who plays a completely different role of the cruise director and shows more emotions and humanity .She could have played into another movies and wasn't given other opportunities that's a pity because she deserved better than Love boat.

Stylish low-budget slasher flick

[moonspinner55 · 5/10 · 16 August 2001]

Surprisingly decent entry in the slasher-flick genre has attractive, spunky Lauren Tewes (here on loan from TV's "The Love Boat", and doing excellent work besides) playing crack reporter hunting down a serial killer of women. Jennifer Jason Leigh, with her thick crop of hair and pale skin, is luminous in her film-debut as Tewes' deaf-mute-and-blind sister (her sequence in the kitchen with the killer is incredibly well-staged). The movie's first priority is to be a bloodfest, and some of the violence is predictably disgusting; however, of its type, "Eyes" isn't half bad! I found the grainy production quite eerie, John DiSanti gives a brave performance as the hefty psycho, and, as noted, Tewes is terrific. Who knew?? ** from ****

Underrated, but nothing spectacular.

[snowleopard · 7/10 · 8 May 2001]

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.

A traditional thriller with contemporary slasher tropes incorporated to mostly decent effect.

[IonicBreezeMachine · 5/10 · 29 May 2021]

Set in Miami, Florida, the film follows Jane (Lauren Tewes) a TV news reporter who covers the murders of a serial murderer/rapist. Jane lives with her sister, Tracy (Jennifer Jason Leigh in her first film role), who after an encounter with an abductor as a child renders her blind, deaf and mute leaving Jane with survivor's guilt. Jane sees suspicious behavior from a neighbor in the adjacent apartment block, Stanley Herbert (John DiSanti), and suspects he may be the killer. Jane's suspicions are confirmed and Jane uses her skills and resources to turn the tables on the killer.

Released in 1981, Eyes of a Stranger marked director Ken Wiederhorn's third feature film following the cult zombie film Shock Waves and forgotten Animal House rip-off King Frat. The film was unique among most slasher films having come from a major studio, Warner Brothers, and forgoing the isolated country sides or suburban settings that defined the ambiance of Friday the 13th, Halloween, and the subsequent films they inspired and went for a more urban environment. Eyes of a Stranger doesn't follow the typical slasher formula wherein we focus on a group as slowly one by one the characters are killed in various fashions, but instead the movie is told from the point of view of Jane as she investigates her suspicions in an almost Noir-ish approach to the material there's a decent story idea at the core of Eyes of a Stranger, but it feels like it's rather unsure of itself as it wavers between traditional thriller tropes and slasher tropes with both ends feeling rather underdeveloped.

I think the biggest mistake the movie makes is in letting us the audience know that Stanley Herbert is a killer from the get go. While initially Stanley's face is obscured in shadow or off camera during the initial kills, the movie eventually drops this and it's made clear he is the killer. The fact we already know who the killer is robs much of Jane's investigative story of its tension as conversations with her lawyer boyfriend where they debate whether he is the killer feel pointless since we already know Jane is right and it's just the movie spinning its wheels until the inevitable climax. The kills are very much inspired by slasher trends and the gore work (in the uncut version I saw) by Tom Savini is par for the course well done and carries weight and impact, but we know so little about the people being killed because they're not main characters and you feel nothing when they die because there's no investment. It's not to say that this kind of framework can't work as there's been a number of Giallo films from the likes of Mario Bava or Dario Argento that cover material in this fashion, but those films usually try to have a sense of moral ambiguity to them with time taken to establish intrigue or character. We do get an idea of the impetus as to what motivates Jane's plan against Stanley, but it isn't all that fleshed out and feels like a footnote. Stanley himself isn't all that interesting and basically plays a standard quiet loner but even with that we don't get much of an idea as to who Stanley is outside his kills. His apartment is spotless and bland with only a Cuckoo clock that serves as a plot point standing out and we have no idea what he's like outside of the killings so he's basically just a murder machine for Jane to fight against.

Eyes of a Stranger is technically superior and has a more interesting story core than most of its contemporaries of the 1980s Slasher Glut, but it doesn't fully commit to being a thriller or a slasher and wobbles un easily between the two not really satisfying the standards for one or the other. The movie does have an intriguing noir-ish style that made the film more visually interesting in comparison to other films of similar ilk and the effects work by Savini is good as usual, but at the end it feels a hodgepodge of ideas from Rear Window, Wait Until Dark, and Peeping Tom with some contemporary gore work added that doesn't give the film much of its own identity. It's serviceable, but I can't give it much more than that.

High in Intrigue and also Atmospheric

[mountain227 · 8/10 · 15 August 2006]

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.

Lauren Tewes Surprisingly Good

[louisb-399-524629 · 6/10 · 10 August 2014]

I think I would give this movie 3 stars out of 4, since what is good about it is often very good. However, the violence is shockingly explicit and gratuitous, which very nearly derails the picture. In fact, it is so needlessly explicit one is tempted to turn away from the screen in order to avoid it. Lauren Tewes is shockingly good in the lead role, so good that I now wonder why she didn't get more opportunities to shine. Jennifer Jason Leigh is also excellent, and I have to admit I forgot it was her until near the end of the picture. The identity of the killer is revealed early on, so the only suspense comes when Tewes begins to think she knows his identity and then begins to follow and taunt him. Some of this was compelling, but a lot of it was so unlikely that I had to laugh on occasion. At one point Tewes finds herself in the killer's apartment when he suddenly returns, and the way she extricates herself from this predicament is so unlikely that I laughed out loud(entering another apartment directly below and then casually walking out with the inhabitants eating at their table? Really?). The great film critic Gene Siskel gave this movie 2.5 stars out of 4, saying that without the gratuitous violence he could recommend the film without reservation as a well-made urban thriller. I agree with him, but for those who like these slasher-type movies, I believe this is by far the best. It's genuinely creepy and scary much of the time.

From the Love Boat straight to hell

[BandSAboutMovies · 5/10 · 17 October 2019]

I read a review of this movie that really talked down on it, describing it as a "sleazy TV movie-of-the-week punctuated with gory murder scenes." That's positive ink in my neck of the woods, so of course I hunted this down. It's the first movie that Jennifer Jason Lee - the daughter of Vic Morrow - as ever in.

It's also a Ken Wiederhorn film, the guy who brought you stand-outs like Shock Waves, Return of the Living Dead Part II and Meatballs II, not to mention the never on DVD movie Dark Tower.

A rapist and murderer has the modus operati of stalking and calling his victims before he takes them out. Now, TV reporter Jane is on the case, feeling like the killer could be a next-door neighbor. She's played by Braddock, PA's (the adoptive home of Martin, of course) Lauren Tewes, who was Julie McCoy on The Love Boat.

The film was planned as a straight-forward mystery before the slasher boom took off. So to get to the blood and gore quotient required, they hired Tom Savini to do the special effects. However, the grisly visions he conjured could never get an R rating, so most of his work was exorcised from the film. That said - the 2007 DVD release of the film has an uncut version.

While it's never explained, Jennifer Jason Leigh's character is deaf, blind and mute, perhaps the result of a past assault. When the killer targets her in the last ten minutes, the film really picks up the pace.

slice and dice

[SnoopyStyle · 6/10 · 17 November 2018]

A serial killer is on the loose in Miami. Jane Harris (Lauren Tewes) is a local TV anchor. Her sister Tracy (Jennifer Jason Leigh) is a deaf mute. Jane suspects her neighbor as the killer but few are willing to believe her.

This is mostly in the slice and dice killer genre. It tries to be a little bit of Rear Window and a little bit of Dressed to Kill. Director Ken Wiederhorn is no De Palma nor Hitchcock. The man made Meatballs Part II. The draw in this movie is Tewes from The Love Boat and a very new Jennifer Jason Leigh. Both do solid work especially Leigh. The final confrontation is the most compelling section. The rest of the kills are strictly slice and dice.

80s slasher film take on "Rear Window" meets "The Babysitter and the Man Upstairs" urban legend

[a_chinn · 6/10 · 15 July 2019]

From Ken Wiederhorn, director of the underrated underwater Nazi zombie classic "Shock Waves," comes this variation on the classic "Babysitter and the Man Upstairs" urban legend/scary story (i.e. "The call is coming from inside the house!"). Lauren Tewes, Julie McCoy of "The Love Boat" fame, plays a TV news reporter covering a story about a serial murderer/rapist prowling 1980s Miami for victims. The urban legend element is that the killer calls his victims over the phone before he strikes. Tewes begins to suspect her creepy neighbor and we begin to move into a competently made slasher film version of "Rear Window." The film was written by Ron Kurz (as Mark Jackson), who wrote "Friday the 13th Part 2" which gave the world the adult version of Jason Voorhees, but this film's killer is no Jason and the thrills are far from generating Hitchockian levels of suspense. In the film's favor, Jennifer Jason Leigh is very good in an early role as Tewes' younger sister who she's trying to protect and composer Richard Einhorn provides a good score, but a major standout (if it's your sort of thing) are the gory old school practical special effects by genre maestro Tom Savini ("Dawn of the Dead" "Manic" "The Prowler" "Creepshow" etc.). Overall, "Eyes of a Stranger" feels like a competent enough of made-for-TV movie (although it was a theatrical release) with a few decent set pieces that included a fair amount of slasher film levels of gore, which was enough to hold my interest, but not enough to make this a film one to go out of your way to watch unless 80s slasher films are your thing (which they are mine).

And I raise my head and stare... into the eyes of a stranger!

[BA_Harrison · 6/10 · 7 April 2021]

Heralding from the golden age of the slasher, and featuring the lovely Jennifer Jason Leigh in her movie debut, plus gore by make-up effects legend Tom Savini, this one already ticks several boxes. The well-executed opening murder sequence is also very promising, director Ken Wiederhorn achieving maximum tension with what is essentially a routine slasher set-up: a waitress at a titty bar walks home alone, but is followed by an ominous figure. Once indoors, she locks the door, but is menaced by several creepy phone calls, the caller threatening to rape and kill her. After calling the police, the woman's boyfriend turns up (wearing a plastic mask for a cheap scare) and suggests that she stays at his place. However, the psycho has already made his way into the apartment (via an open window). While the waitress packs a bag, the killer hacks off the boyfriend's head with a meat cleaver, dropping the severed noggin into a fish tank. When the woman re-enters the room, she sees her man's body gushing blood from his neck stump and fish swimming around his head. The murderer appears and assaults her before strangling her with his belt. It's a mean-spirited, gory, suspenseful way to kick things off, which makes it all the more disappointing that almost nothing that follows is as good.

The heroine of the film is TV newsreader Jane Harris (Lauren Tewes), who lives in a high rise apartment building with her sister Tracy, who was left blind and deaf after a sexual assault when she was a child. When Jane sees neighbour Stanley Herbert (John DiSanti) changing his clothes in an underground car park, she begins to suspect that he is the Miami Strangler who she has been reporting on in her news programme. The messy double murder of a courting couple only convinces her further. Being an intrepid reporter, she doesn't go to the police with her suspicions, but instead tries to gather evidence of his guilt. In a scene inspired by Rear Window, she breaks into Herbert's home (in the apartment block opposite hers) to look for proof that he is the killer, which is a pretty risky and ill-advised move since she tells no-one of her plan. Of course, Wiedrehorn is no Hitchcock, and in perhaps the film's most ridiculous moment, the man arrives back sooner than expected, forcing Jane to dangle from his balcony by her fingertips, hundreds of feet up. Fortunately, Miami clearly doesn't abide by the usual rules of physics, and rather than falling to her death, she is able to swing herself onto the balcony below.

Having successfully half-inched a muddy shoe that could place the man at the site of the last murders, what does Jane do? No, not send it to the police anonymously, with an explanatory note suggesting they check the man out. What she actually does is give the shoe to her lawyer boyfriend in the hope that he can get someone to examine it, and then phones the killer to tell him that she knows what he did. All credibility goes out the window when sicko Stanley sees Jane on TV and he recognises her voice, and then sees Tracy out on the balcony opposite and decides to make her his next victim. The killer breaks into the sisters' apartment and menaces the poor blind girl; meanwhile, Jane has broken into Stanley's place AGAIN (having not been put off by her previous near-death experience), and sees Tracy being attacked in her apartment opposite. In one final contrivance, this event kick starts Tracy's dormant senses and she is able to see enough to grab a gun and shoot at her assailant. In time honoured slasher tradition, the girl wrongly believes Stanley to be dead and drops the gun, giving the maniac the opportunity for one more attack. Big sis Jane arrives just in time to pick up the pistol and blow Herbert's brains out, a splatterific effect by Savini that ends the film in fine style, just like it began. Shame about some of the not so great stuff in between.

I've seen better (but, I've also seen much worse...)

[BillyBC · 13 May 2003]

(**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.

Good Suspense

[mamaeileencrawford · 7/10 · 11 December 2021]

Jennifer Jason Leigh would go on to bigger and better things, but she's great here in her first major feature film role as the blind and mute sister of Lauren Tewes' pushy reporter who believes their neighbor is the one responsible for a series of sleazy murders. Some good attempts at suspense keep things classy.

Not too bad

[ODDBear · 5/10 · 5 March 2009]

"Eyes of a Stranger" is really more of a thriller than a slasher and as such it ain't too bad. It does look like someone watched "Rear Window" and John Carpenter's "Someone's Watching Me" too often, so the originality factor is pretty much out the window. Other than that, the flick does establish a fair amount of mood and atmosphere, particularly in the well handled opening scene.

Overall the set pieces here are well done. The film isn't all that gory but it does have it's moments. The end conclusion is a bit too predictable and stretched but up until then it's a decent thriller.

Acting isn't great, only Leigh comes off credible as the deaf and blind sister of the protagonist. But I gotta admit, there's something very creepy about the dude who plays the psycho.

Nasty and Suspenseful

[kevinfbarker · 7/10 · 21 October 2020]

A TV reporter believes the man who's responsible for a recent string of rapes and murders lives across from her and her blind and mute sister. When no one will take her seriously, she does a little investigating herself, but it might be the last case she ever investigates. You have to give Eyes of a Stranger a pat on the back for focusing more on suspense than most of the other films released around this time. Depending on which version you see, there's still more than enough gore, but the story itself seems better plotted than a lot of other similar films.

You can't call this a good movie

[smatysia · 4/10 · 9 June 2012]

You can't call this a good movie. It doesn't get the slack you might give to a slasher movie, because while it has some elements of that, it aims higher, and misses. There was some decent acting going on in places. Lauren Tewes was pretty, but never really inhabited her character. John Di Santi was creepy enough, while passing as normal. But the writers never fleshed out his character, a missed opportunity, I'd say. Jennifer Jason Liegh did surprisingly well as the deaf-mute, blind sister-victim. She looked so young, and I guess she was. Gwen Lewis had a fairly long scene with a fair number of lines, and did very well. I was surprised to see that she never appeared as an actress in anything else before or since. In spite of the good things, there was too much bad (stilted dialog, plot holes, characters behaving in inexplicable ways) to recommend this one.

Don't answer the phone.

[morrison-dylan-fan · 8/10 · 12 February 2011]

When I picked up the film,and I noticed on the sleeve mentions to the Friday the 13th series,it got me to expect that the film would be a fun, nasty slasher film.

During my viewing of the movie,I was surprised to discover,that most of the film is actually a very efficient cat-and-mouse thriller.

The plot:

Over a period of a few weeks,Stanley Herbert-who seems to do his best to make sure that he stays a loner (so as not to raise any ones suspicions)starts to terrorise girls,who are also on there own.Herbert sets out tormenting the girls,by first of all ringing each of his victims up, to give them terrifying phone calls about how he is going to rape and murder them.

After having gotten the girl to become a shivering wreak,Herbert waits until the girl is on her own,so that he can grab them,and then brutally rape and kill them.With signs that there might be a serial killer on the loose in the area,the local TV news station hears about this,and decides to make this there top stories.Although as the murder count increases,it seems that the police have no idea what is happening around them.

This leads to the local news channel head reporter (who is also taking care of her blind and deaf sister,who in the past has been brutally raped.)to decide that she cant wait for the police to get round to properly investigating,and that she is going to investigate the murders herself.

As the reporter starts to investigate around the area,she begins to notice that a neighbour of hers seems to be acting very strangely..

View on the film:

Looking at the cast,I have to admit the I feel that John Disanti gives the most memorable performance in the film as the crazed serial killer Stanley Herbert.With his small-round specs (that should have become a horror trademark)Disanti is truly chilling as Herbert,who seems to enjoy calculating the best time to destroy his victims.In the final battle,Disanti shows that whilst most people would seem to be at a huge disadvantage with a gun pointed at them,he is able to make it feel that Herbert may actually be the one with the upper hand.

With being the only one that seems to be after him,Lauren Tewes (making her film debut) gives a very good performance as news reporter Jane Harris,with Tewes giving the scenes where she is getting closer,and closer to realising the killer,a fantastic edge-of-your-seat intensity,with the risks that the character is taking.

Also in her film debut with this film is Jennifer Jason Leigh as Janes sister Tracy.Even though Leigh plays someone who hardly speaks in the film,the last twenty minutes of the film,where Tracy and Stanley are battling against each other,are given a great sense of danger,by Leigh showing how strong-minded Tracy is about surviving being out of her comfort zone.

Although the first half an hour of the film,has some very enjoyable hack"n" slash moments, (although I do have to admit,that I did smile a little when some one gets beheaded due to the sound effect sounding like someone was cutting through very smooth treacle!) the rest of the film turns into a much more gripping cat-and-mouse thriller,with sections of the film such as Jane being in the killers apartment which,although being a staple of the genre,is still strongly written and very gripping.

From the first ten minutes of the film,the main thing that caught my eyes about the start of the great screenplay by Mark Jackson and Eric L. Bloom,were the phone calls that Herbert does .Which along with being very disturbing,they seem to have inspired the threatening phone call scenes in the first Scream film (especially the first ten minute section of the film.)

Final view on the film:

A gripping cat-and-mouse horror/thriller,with a great script and a fantastic creepy performance by Disanti.

Suspenseful

[dperky · 7/10 · 8 September 2021]

Jane, a television reporter, believes that a recent series of brutal murders are tied to a creepy loner who lives across the street from her. Without anyone to believe her, she starts trying to prove it herself and gets herself and her blind sister, Tracey, in trouble.

While appropriately gory and nasty as per the slasher films of this era, Eyes of a Stranger also has a nice flair for Hitchcockian suspense. If one were to edit out some of the bloodier moments, it could pass as a sophisticated adult thriller. Also notable for an early appearance by Jennifer Jason Leigh as Lauren Tewes' sister.

I'm surrounded by idiots...

[natashabowiepinky · 4/10 · 24 April 2013]

There's a real weirdo in this film. No, not the overweight, speccy guy who breaks into women's houses at night to rape and murder them, who also puts decapitated heads in aquariums. His problems are well-documented... Leave him alone.

I am referring to the blonde news reporter who lives nearby, and finds out the identity of this serial killer. Desperate to protect her disabled sister who lives with her and hasn't been able to see, hear or talk since she was assaulted at a young age by another pervert, what does our reporter do? Phone the police? OF COURSE NOT!! She BREAKS into the maniac's house to try and gather evidence, and leaves him mysterious PHONE-CALLS telling him she knows his guilt. This second action is particularly perplexing... seeing as she's on the TV news every night, didn't she think he might be able to recognize her voice?

Well he does of course, which leads him to her apartment, and a showdown with the news reporter's traumatized sibling. Thank goodness for that conveniently placed jug of hot coffee! Then, sister arrives JUST in the nick of time with a Colt. BANG BANG!! You're dead. That should be the end... But whaddoya know... the sister's ordeal has jogged her back to reality!! SHE CAN SEE, HEAR AND TALK AGAIN!! HURRAY!! A NATION CELEBRATES!! Apart from me, I roll my eyes, and start to wonder about my direction in life... 4/10