Census Bloodbath: Stranger Danger

Year: 1981

Director: Ken Wiederhorn

Cast: Lauren Tewes, Jennifer Jason Leigh, John DiSanti

Run Time: 1 hour 24 minutes

MPAA Rating: R

Eyes of a Stranger is a slasher film displaced in time. A sleazy rape-murder thriller in the vein of the late-70's grindhouse era, the film came late to the party in March 1981, by which time the despotic teen splatter film had risen to its rightful throne. It's a lonely straggler, left out in the cold by the genre's abrupt transition following the release of Friday the 13th.

The true misfortune of this is that Eyes of a Stranger is possibly the best of its skeevy brethren, certainly far more than its lackluster counterpart from 1980, the utterly reprehensible Don't Answer the Phone. Taking cues from the vibrantly grimy Maniac, the film rises above its lowly stature to actually bestow a modicum of artistic merit upon itself.

Not that I'm asking for high art from my meat cleaver movies.

The film tells the story of Jane Harris (Lauren Tewes), an empathetic Miami reporter who is profoundly personally affected by a recent rash of rape-murder crimes that has been striking the city. These crimes trigger her feelings of guilt about the molestation of her sister Tracy (Jennifer Jason Leigh in her first feature film role), which left her deaf and blind. When she begins to suspect that her neighbor Stanley Herbert (John DiSanti) is the culprit, she takes it upon herself to investigate, despite the protestations of her lawyer boyfriend David (Peter DuPre).

While it could have just been yet another throwaway trifle of misogyny, Eyes of a Stranger has much more to it than that. On top of two strong female protagonists, the film has a focused sense of style and an exquisite amount of tension during many sequences. It's almost like it's actually a movie instead of a string of nasty kill scenes. What an idea!

Don't get me wrong, there's still plenty to dislike about Eyes of a Stranger. Its focus on rape as a key element of the murder sequences prevents them from being any fun, though the bulk of the sex crimes are thankfully relegated to the offscreen void. That keeps the kills from becoming too nasty, but it also keeps them from becoming much of anything. In a film with a flimsier plot, this would have sunk the entire affair like a lead iceberg.

But lo and behold, we have a surprisingly solid thriller narrative anchored by characters with actual dynamics. The victims are still generally one-dimensional and introduced only to die five minutes later, but the main storyline is nothing to shake a stick at. As the body count begins to pile up, Jane's foolhardiness puts a strain on her relationship with David, with whom she has been using Tracy as an excuse to avoid shacking up.

Despite the fact that she can handily do laundry, make toast, go swimming, and all sorts of totally normal teen things all by herself. As a matter of fact, I think the laundry thing puts her ahead of the average teen.

So, in Eyes of a Stranger we have realistic characters interacting in a world with consequences, many of whom are performed with surprising skill. Tewes is absolutely stunning, creating a nuanced backstory told completely by her face, and Jason Leigh milks tension out of every moment she's in, no matter how brightly lit or visually unimpressive they may otherwise be. Only DiSanti is a weak link, providing an utterly banal villain performance in which he is out-acted by his car, which has a swooping Night Rider design and sinister eye-like headlamps. Honestly, if there's ever a sequel in the works, any smart producer would tap that car first thing.

Earlier I mentioned the film's sense of style and I'm going to expand upon that now, because segues are the worst. Especially in the first act, the world of Eyes of a Stranger is populated with rich, vivid colors that, much like its spiritual forebear Maniac, invoke the atmosphere of the classic Italian gialli.  The swooping camera slowly carves its path through highly saturated greens and reds, lending the film an air of class and panache before it brutalizes the audience.

I've already spoken out about the imbalance in the kill sequences, which struggle to avoid the nastier side of exploitation, in which violent rape is merely an excuse to see boobs, but many other moments before and after the questionable acts are fraught with genuine tension. I shudder to spoil too many of these, because they're really quite alarming, but Eyes of a Stranger puts in a bid at actually achieving scares, something many an anemic slasher has utterly failed to do.

On top of all this, the film has an intimate, detailed sense of its own geography, it paws at thematic potential with a half-cocked subtextual discussion on sight and the male gaze, a unique exploration of the life of a girl cut off from her senses, and it's possibly one of the most female-empowering films of its ilk. Even in the finale, which sets up a "the hero races to the scene" subplot, the women prevail over all and the bonds of sisterhood prove to be the most effective defense. It's like Frozen but with more belt stranglings!

Although to be honest, I'm a little sad nobody even attempted to whack Olaf the snowman.

Tom Savini doesn't get a lot to do, but his effects perk up the film where it counts, and creates an ultimately very enjoyable experience. I'm extremely hesitant to throw my support behind Eyes of a Stranger because despite its charms, it's still beholden to its pedigree of sleaze, but all in all it's a worthwhile watch.

Killer: Stanley Herbert (John DiSanti)

Final Girl: Jane Harris (Lauren Tewes) and Tracy Harris (Jennifer Jason Leigh)

Best Kill: Jeff is decapitated and his head is placed in a fish tank, much like the awesome He Knows You're Alone from the year before.

Sign of the Times: I'd be screaming too if I was asked to put on that forest green tracksuit.

Scariest Moment: Tracy goes about her business in the kitchen, but when she claps her dog doesn't come. We see that it's dead on the floor and realize that the killer is in the house.
Weirdest Moment: Debbie watches Shock Waves on TV. This is weird because nobody has ever willingly watched Shock Waves.
Champion Dialogue: "Why don't you go stick it in your ear and then go jump in the bay?"
Body Count: 7; not including a corpse found in the beginning of the film, or Tracy's seeing-eye dog.

1. Jeff is decapitated.
2. Debbie is strangled with a belt offscreen.
3. Annette is killed offscreen.
4. Smoocher is stabbed in the neck with a switchblade.
5. Smoochette has her throat slit.
6. Stripper is killed offscreen.
7. Stanley Herbert is shot in the head. 

TL;DR: Eyes of a Stranger is weighed down by a sleazy atmosphere, but features some terrific performances and a great deal of legitimate tension.
Rating: 6/10
Word Count: 1178

Census Bloodbath: Freak Show

Year: 1981

Director: Tobe Hooper
Cast: Elizabeth Berridge, Cooper Huckabee, Kevin Conway
Run Time: 1 hour 36 minutes
MPAA Rating: R

It's October, man! I'm quite excited to get into the swing of things with my Texas Chainsaw retrospective and a special crossover with my friend Hunter over at Kinemalogue (also expect reviews of Chocolat and Fiddler on the Roof because my friends/boyfriend are strange), but in this central month for horror, it wouldn't be good to skimp on my most terror-centric feature: Census Bloodbath!

Skipping ahead a little bit in 1981, today we're visiting another film by Chainsaw auteur Tobe Hooper, his pea soup movie The Funhouse. I call it this because while some people seem to love it, others despise it with a burning, fiery passion. I'm more in the latter camp, though it's a good sight better than some of the crap I've forced myself to watch this September, so you won't catch me complaining.

This one frame cost more than the entirety of The Outing.

The man who had a major hand in ushering in the slasher era with his 1974 masterpiece returns with this far more straightforward teen fright flick in the second year of the subgenre's boom. So straightforward, in fact, that the opening scene combines the three most prominent elements of the genre as it stood in the 80's - Halloween rip-offs, Psycho rip-offs, and dumbass fake scares. This is certainly not promising, but later on the film does lift itself up slightly from its slasher roots with a more involved B-plot than its uncouth peers.

Unfortunately, the A-plot is what we're stuck with, and a slate of Meat too undercooked to even be served as tartare. There's Amy (Elizabeth Berridge), the virginal and prudish girl who hates fun; Buzz (Cooper Huckabee), the annoying layabout who tries to impress Amy with his machismo; Liz (Largo Woodruff), Amy's best friend; and Richie (Miles Chapin of Pandemonium), her stoner boyfriend. The foursome decides to double date at the local carnival and spend the night in the funhouse against the objections of Amy for reasons of being annoying.

Although she does have a point, considering that once inside they witness the murder of the carnival's fortune teller at the hands of a Monster (Wayne Doba), the deformed son of the carnival Barker (Kevin Conway). When they get trapped inside, they must dare to face this twisted duo and yadda yadda, bad things, it's a slasher, you get it.

Just to make sure we knew that, they slipped in a shower scene in the opening because there's an unfortunate lack of bathrooms in carnival rides.

Although the film boasts a clever premise and a killer villain (pun intended), The Funhouse is an utterly flavorless genre picture. The first act stretches on into eternity as the bland kids wander around the carnival being douches, which slams into a dull second act with some admittedly grotesque special effects. The film doesn't truly pick up until the final showdown in the third act, at which point it is far too watered down to even come close to the kinetic finale of Chain Saw. It might as well be called "The House" because there certainly isn't any fun to be had here.

Perhaps it's not fair to constantly compare Tobe Hooper's later output with his magnum opus film, but the longer his career stretches, the more the film seems like a cosmic joke we haven't been told the punchline to. And truth be told, Hooper's twisted Texan influence can be felt throughout The Funhouse, but it shoots off in all directions rather than joining together in a focused, heaving mass of depravity.

Some choice picks from a sea of examples include a man who offers a young boy a ride in his truck, then points a shotgun at him, hooting up a storm, a mysterious Bag Lady (Sonia Zomina of Eyes of a Stranger) whose sole purpose in life seems to be covering herself in dirt and shouting at people, and the carnies, all of whom are alcohol-swilling degenerates with no qualms about the exploitation of themselves or others.

Each isolated person or event is creepy, but the aimless tone of the movie prevents them from ever forming a coherent whole. It's just a series of scenes, some creepier than others, that drift along until the halfway point, when the kids finally enter the funhouse and relieve that relentless itching that occurs while waiting for something - anything - to happen.

Step right up and witness the most horrifyingly uninteresting protagonist of cinema history!

OK, it's not all bad. The makeup on the killer is unforgettable. (I shan't spoil it here, but if you wish to take a peek, click this.) There's some interesting stuff buried beneath the surface about generational discord (if you're willing to dig a bit and maybe own an industrial drill), especially with the juxtaposition of Amy's relationship with her dad and the bond between the Barker and the Monster.

And Doba's performance as The Monster is quite thrilling, though coming so soon after the tonally similar Leatherface is a huge hurdle to jump. And once Hooper's style kicks into hyperdrive in the finale, throwing Amy into a hellstorm of rapid-fire editing and jarring color compositions, the shroud of tedium lifts for several sustained minutes.

But all in all, The Funhouse is a dull carnival ride with lifeless scares popping out on springs, but not enough heart to really sell them. The Final Girl is a useless mop who'd scream at her own shoelaces and the story resolves itself almost entirely by accident. There's a pointless subplot about her little brother Joey (Shawn Carson) that steals so much screentime that you're convinced something exciting or game-changing will happen with him. It doesn't.

Its production values keep the whole thing flowing together smoothly, but The Funhouse is far too drab for me to ever want to visit again.

Killer: The Monster (Wayne Doba)

Final Girl: Amy Harper (Elizabeth Berridge)
Best Kill: When Richie is hung by a noose, stolen money spills from his pockets, making it rain on his unwitting friends.
Sign of the Times: Amy uses a pay phone to call her mom. Can you believe people used to need an entire box to make a phone call? How demanding.
Scariest Moment: The Bag Lady emerges from her position crouching in the dirt to shriek at Joey.
Weirdest Moment: Joey apparently decorates his room with medieval weaponry.
Champion Dialogue: "I hate people who preach. Especially in bathrooms."
Body Count: 6

1. Madame Zena is strangled.
2. Richie is hung by a noose.
3. Liz is punched and/or clawed to death.
4. The Barker is impaled on a sword and shot four times.
5. Buzz is killed offscreen.
6. The Monster is electrocuted, hung on a hook, and crushed between two gears. 

TL;DR: The Funhouse is a tremendous concept with utterly dull execution.

Rating: 4/10

Word Count: 1152