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EYES OF A STRANGER
Rating: 
USA. 1981.
Director – Ken Wiederhorn, Screenplay – Eric L. Bloom & Mark Jackson, Producer – Ronald Zerra, Photography – Mini Rojas, Music – Richard Einhorn, Makeup Effects – Tom Savini, Art Direction – Jessica Sack. Production Company – Georgetown Productions.
Cast:
Lauren Tewes (Jane Harris), Jennifer Jason Leigh (Tracy Harris), John Di Santi (Stanley Herbert), Peter DuPre (David)
Plot: Miami is being terrorized by a killer who rings and taunts female victims before raping and then killing them. Television newscaster Jane Harris feels personally disturbed by the killings as she and her younger sister Tracy were attacked as children, with Tracy being left catatonically deaf, dumb and blind as a result. Jane’s producers become uncomfortable when she starts obsessing about the killer on air. Jane then witnesses Stanley Herbert, one of the neighbours in her apartment building, throwing out a bloodied shirt and believes that he might be the killer. And so she begins to play with Herbert – anonymously calling and saying that she knows about him. However, the game backfires when he connects her anonymous voice with the one he sees on the tv screen and comes after her.
Among the host of slasher movies that quickly came out following the success of Friday the 13th (1980), Eyes of a Stranger was one of the more intelligent. For one, it actually had a plot. In fact, Eyes of a Stranger turned to an eminent source – Alfred Hitchcock’s Rear Widow (1954) and its plot of the voyeur who witnesses a murder. John Di Santi’s killer even bears a strong physical resemblance to Raymond Burr, the killer in Rear Window. There are a few other cliches also thrown into the mix as well – the catatonically deaf, dumb and blind victim who regains their senses at the point of attack a la The Spiral Staircase (1946); and the theme of the woman tv newscaster who becomes a focus of the stalker that was used in several other films around the same time – Someone’s Watching Me (1978), The Seduction (1982), Visiting Hours (1982).
Of course, director Ken Wiederhorn is no Alfred Hitchcock and despite the eminent pedigree of its setup, Eyes of a Stranger quickly descends to slasher movie killings and set-ups. Apparently, the film started out as a standard psycho-thriller but extra gore scenes were added to turn it into a slasher film after the success of Friday the 13th. Friday the 13th’s Tom Savini is employed on the gore effects and provides the film’s schlockiest moment – the appearance of a victim’s boyfriend’s head in a fishtank. Slasher tactics eventually win out over suspense, although Wiederhorn does mount an effectively tense climax.
Eyes of a Stranger was directed by Ken Wiederhorn who made the worthwhile Nazi zombies film Shock Waves (1976). Alas, Eyes of a Stranger would be the last almost decent film that Wiederhorn would make and his career subsequently went downhill with the likes of Meatballs Part II (1984) and Return of the Living Part II (1988).
Eyes of a Stranger was notable at the time for starring Lauren Tewes, best known as a regular on tv’s The Love Boat (1977-86). Subsequently, the film became known as being the earliest screen appearance of Jennifer Jason Leigh.
Copyright Richard Scheib 1999-2011
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