EYES OF A STRANGER
1981 – R – 85 Min.
D: Ken Wiederhorn
S: Lauren Tewes – Jennifer Jason Leigh – John DiSanti
Warner Brothers Home Entertainment DVD (Also released as part of the Twisted Terror Collection.)
Anamorphic Widescreen / Dolby Digital Mono
Decidedly unpleasant movie features Tewes (of Love Boat fame) as newswoman Jane Harris reporting on the recent activities of serial rapist/murderer Stanley Herbert (DiSanti). Harris expresses a special interest because her younger sister Tracey (Leigh) was viciously assaulted as a child and left deaf, blind, and unable to speak. As misfortune would have it, Jane discovers that the psychopath in question lives in the same twin-tower high-rise apartment complex where she now resides with her special-needs sibling. Her lawyer boyfriend initially dismisses Jane as paranoid so she makes a solo attempt to expose Herbert for the sicko he is. Before it’s over it will be Tracey who is once again in jeopardy. Sleazy situations abound. You’ll see no graphic rape but you’ll see the detailed beatings, weakening strangulations, and other humiliations that lead up to it in detail. A dog is thrown in only so it can be shown dead later on, it’s just that kind of movie. Not poorly made, technically, but still off the mark. Eyes of A Stranger is a slasher trying to disguise itself as an important thriller, even going so far as to loosely reference Hitchcock. Whether this was intentional or not is unknown. Regardless, such machinations do little to veil the truth…. This is just another sleazy time-killer… period. The good news is that this DVD release of Eyes of A Stranger is completely uncut and features all of Tom Savini’s previously unseen special effects intact!