Saturday, April 22, 2017

eyeball (cinema history class)


AS ALWAYS, THERE MAY BE SPOILERS

Session: Giallo-Rama, week 3
Movie: Eyeball  (1975)

Plot:

An American tour group is trying to enjoy Barcelona. And they would be enjoying it if not for the fact that a mystery killer keeps murdering them. One at a time. By stabbing them in the eye. Hilarity ensues.

Class Reaction:
The reaction here was mixed. Joe and Dave rated this very highly, and had a grand old time with it. They found it to be a well-told story, and often great fun. Again, Dave called it early, figuring out who the murderer was before anyone else did. Joe said that he is now sold on giallos.

Sean, Scott, Ethan and I were less impressed. We enjoyed it, but found that it was missing...something. Maybe that was a result of our coming off two weeks of really great films. But even being unimpressed, none of us really thought this was a bad movie.

We were all kind of stunned by the crucial revelation by one character that she had lost her eye as a child, playing doctor with a friend. You know, if you lose an eye playing doctor, you're doing it wrong.

The ratings:
  • Joe: 9.8 / 10
  • Dave: 9.3 to 9.4 / 10
  • Sean 2 / 4
  • Scott: 7 / 10
  • Ethan: 7 /10
My Thoughts:
After Bay of Blood and Don't Torture a Duckling I had high -- probably impossibly high -- expectations. This just wasn't as interesting. That said, it was a decent slasher/murder mystery, and I realize that it did keep me guessing. So I can't really dismiss it. If it brought me in to that degree. There was plenty of misdirection, which I tend to like in these kinds of films.

As an aside, Ethan disagreed with my perspective. If he finds himself guessing at who the killer is, he finds that to be a bad sign. I guess he feels that if he's truly being sucked into the drama he's just letting it unfold.

Anyway, I was amused that the Minister in the American tour group looked a lot like Barry Goldwater.

I gave this a 7 out of 10.

Eyeball passes the Bechdel Test.

Extras:
Before the movie, Keith showed us trailers for three other giallos:
  • Lizard in a Woman's Skin
  • Death Stalks on High Heels
  • Four Flies on Grey Velvet
Also, Sean was back, having missed the prior session, where we watched Don't Torture a Duckling. Missing the class experience, he hunted it down and watched it on his own (and then with friends) so he could comment to us. He agreed that it was a great film, and rated it a perfect ten. Oh, and Joe revised his rating of Duckling from 9.8 to 9.95. In so doing, he coined the phrase, "Hot Duck Breath," which I think would make an excellent band name.

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