I was first drawn to “Eyes of a Stranger,” a slasher made in 1981, because there’s a song from the heavy metal band Queensrÿche of the same name (unrelated to the film).
It worked out—it’s a decent movie.
The plot is as follows. A serial rapist/killer is terrorizing Miami, and television reporter Jane (played by Lauren Tewes of TV’s “Love Boat”) is not happy about it. She gets a break when she observes a man in her building acting suspiciously. But this proximity also puts Jane’s sister, who became blind and deaf after being attacked as a child, in danger.
The opening sequence, in which the killer torments a female bartender, is genuinely unsettling. There’s no denying the films of this era had a cruelty that has since been shoved aside. (Too bad!)
Also of note is a later scene where the killer secretly antagonizes the sister by moving objects out of her reach after she has placed them.
Some of the suspense seems forced, like when Jane dangles from a balcony several stories up to avoid detection, when the more sensible thing would be to simply hop over to the balcony next door.
In general, there’s not a lot of plot here—more a series of anxiety-inducing vignettes. But sometimes that’s enough.
Oh, and the blind sister is played by Jennifer Jason Leigh in her first screen role. She was about nineteen at the time. Ever since her turn in “Last Exit to Brooklyn,” I’ve considered her a major acting talent.
Worth a watch.
