Eyeball (1978)

hyped garbage

Your blood may run cold, but you now find yourself pinioned to the story.

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

The joyful confection is coated in a sparkly gloss, bright enough to gleam from the darkest, most cynical corners.

On a sight-seeing trip in Barcelona, an eclectic group of tourists finds themselves being stalked by a maniac looking for a particular member of the group who knows the secret about their past criminal life and must find a way to stop the rampage before they're all killed.This was quite the fun and overall enjoyable Giallo. One of the strongest efforts within this one is the fact that there's so much to really like here with the cheesy setting and location of the overall effort. The fact that this one plays with the idea of the tourist group on a trip through the city when they get caught up in the mystery of the killer striking against them sets this off on a solid note, and the scenes of the group on the streets enjoying the city or being chased thinking they've gotten the killer allows for a nice bit of cheese to be offered here. Once they get further along the investigation the engaging mystery takes over the fun cheese on display as the stalking scenes are quite good, from the opening murder in the streets of the town, a shocking ambush inside a carnival ride where the body is discovered upon arriving back at the station and the great stalking down at the farm featuring the killer tossing the body into the pig-pen. The later ambush on the unsuspecting victim in the bathroom waiting for her partner to come in and then later meeting the killer trying to escape makes for a nice scene, and with the follow-up attack on the witness in the hospital that gets interrupted allows for some solid work here chasing them through the room before making the nice escape that keep his identity a secret. Coupled with the fine nudity and one of the finer use of a tragic accident to spur the murders onward here as the motivation for the killings these here allow this one to have some rather fine positives to hold over the few minor negatives. Among the worst flaws here is the fact that the central investigation doesn't make much sense in the way it unfurls since it feels like the least successful investigation in one of the genres' efforts. There's never a great deal of uncovering clues to lead to the next one that brings about the killers' eventual identity, and when we are stuck with the police inspectors they don't do much of anything to investigate the clues left behind which are there for it does come off with a solid mystery at its heart involving why the tour group is specifically targeted. However, the investigation into the missing passenger and the photographic evidence left behind don't really play into the film all that much and it strikes as quite a weak overall investigation which is part and parcel of the genre. That also leaves the film to stumble at times with a slightly lower body count than would be expected for these kinds of films also coming into play in making the second half feel somewhat weaker than the first half as it opens strongly but seems to fizzle out once they know the killers' stalking them. While it's not enough to really lower this, they do knock it down slightly.Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Violence, Nudity and Language.

"Eyeball" isn't the best film to use as an example to state that the Giallo is the greatest sub genre in horror, and it's neither the ideal effort to claim Umberto Lenzi was one of the greatest European directors of the 20th century. "Eyeball" is, in fact, a rather mediocre Giallo and definitely one of Lenzi's least remarkable films, but it nevertheless remains an entertaining treat for fans of sleazy, gory and trashy Euro-horror of the 1970's. Lucio Fulci may have had a bizarre fetish for eyeball-gore, but it was Lenzi who revolved an entire Giallo-storyline on it! Multiple eyeballs are being removed from their sockets here, so you can rest assured this film will be nasty enough to satisfy even the most demanding gorehounds. The rest of the film is actually not so praiseworthy at all. The plot is silly and incoherent, there's a severe lack of tension building and the dialogs are almost laughably ridiculous. After the discovery of the first murder victim, a woman who was found with multiple stabbing wounds in her chest and the left eyeball missing from the socket, a rookie police officer ask the autopsy doctor if he thinks the murderer is a sadist. Well, what do you think? The script is full of stupid remarks and dialogs like that, and they don't exactly increase the plausibility of the story. The plot introduces a group of tourists on a sightseeing tour in beautiful Barcelona. There's a couple of lesbian lovers, an adulterous businessman and his lovely secretary, an odd-behaving priest and a handful of other disposable American travelers. There also is a maniacal killer on the loose in the city and he/she is inevitably linked with the passengers of the tour bus, because his/her disguise is a red raincoat identical to the ones distributed among the tourists and the victims are either members of the bus party or locals that were in contact with them. Lenzi provides his script with a couple of admirable red herrings and misleading plot twists, but "Eyeball" sadly never becomes as engaging as a true Giallo should be. Especially the tourists' calm and careless reactions to the murders are very unbelievable. Even after several members of the group were found killed and their bodies mutilated, the remaining ones continue to separate themselves from the rest and some of them even attend cheerful Flamingo-dancing parties like nothing happened at all. Can you imagine people to react like this during a real-life situation? I bet real tourists would lock themselves up in their rooms and remain there until they can hop on the first available plane back home. Bruno Nicolai's score is catchy and enchanting, but I can't help thinking I heard the exact same tune somewhere before in another Italian horror, crime or western flick. Lenzi often recycles plot-ideas, ingenious camera angles and music so I wouldn't be surprised if the same score was already used in one of his previous films. The denouement is utterly silly and far-fetched but, hey, it was nearly impossible to predict and that's all that matters. The acting performances are terrible but at least the female stars compensate their lack of talent by showing off their ravishing naked bodies. Recommended in case you're a sucker for Italian cult flicks, all others beware.

Let's face it, there is a finite number of giallos and I have yet to see one with a plausible story line (Anyone see "Watch Me When I Kill"?). Isn't that a prerequisite of the sub-genre, along with the gloved villain and the stylized killings? So why skip this one? Are you waiting for 'The Ultimate Giallo'? This one is alright. Maybe Lenzi has made some crap, especially his latter stuff (Black Demons, Hell's Gate,House Of Witchcraft), but a lot his work kicks ass(Seven Blood-Stained Orchids, Man from Deep River, Gang War in Milan, Almost Human, Syndicate Sadists, Rome Armed to the Teeth, Violent Naples, The Cynic, the Rat & the Fist, Eaten Alive, Nightmare City, Cannibal Ferox). This is not his best, but definitely not his worst. Most likely only giallo fans are going to watch this anyway, so if that is you, go ahead, you won't be disappointed.

All I wanted from this film was a fun Giallo, and that's pretty much what I got. Despite the fact that he's directed a lot of rubbish, I'm actually quite a big fan of Umberto Lenzi, and Seven Bloodstained Orchids in particular shows that he certainly knows his way around a Giallo. This film doesn't come close to that one in terms of quality, and even by Giallo standards; Eyeball is rather silly. It's obvious that Lenzi didn't care too much about making the plot coherent, as barely any attempt is made build characters, and the dialogue between the members of the coach party at the centre of the film is as redundant as the ineffective police investigation. The plot sees a coach full of tourists, which includes adulterers, lesbians and a priest, parading around Spain. They're not the only ones on tour, however, as a blade wielding psychopath is following them round and slicing out certain members' eyeballs before brutally knifing them to death. The police are baffled, and the coach party is sure that the killer isn't one of their number...The main reason why this film doesn't carry much weight in terms of credibility is because the murders aren't taken seriously by anyone in the film. The police concern themselves with minor details, while the coach party continue their holiday and don't spare much of a thought for the murderer's victims! There is some attempt to build a story up amongst the passengers, which includes a lesbian relationship and a man on holiday with his mistress; but none of it really convinces - a fact that isn't helped by the poor dubbing and overplayed soundtrack courtesy of the usually competent Bruno Nicolai. All that being said, this film somehow works because it doesn't take itself seriously, and comfortably fits into the 'fun' side of the Giallo sub-genre. The plot is a bit too wayward, but Lenzi keeps it together by throwing in another nasty murder sequence every time the film looks like it's about to get boring. It all boils down to a suitably silly conclusion, but again it somehow works and makes a lot more sense than the Giallo is famous for making. Overall, I don't recommend going into this film with high hopes; but if you liked Strip Nude for Your Killer and The New York Ripper, Eyeball should suffice.