Zbigniew_Krycsiwiki As its on-screen caption 'HOLLYWOOD Writer's Strike. No More Movies...No More Horror! What's the Devil to do?' began, I found myself asking "What the Devil is this? This isn't the 1980 Rachel Ward movie I was searching for!" Film opens with distorted, point-of-view shots of Hollywood Blvd, weird blue- and red- lighted smoke, soft focus; bleached-out, or just underexposed? Or was the lighting intentionally too hot, and for what reason? (That's the second film I've watched recently with this problem. The first was the non-James Cameron 'Terminator 2', from Italy) Once guy and girl set fire to something called The Book Of Life, the smoke effects begin, the disgusting fire effects begin, and the film becomes very weird, as it is explained away as being merely a dream, from which the girl (Vivian Schilling) wakes up from and writes down, convinced it will make a good horror movie. Apparently, Schilling's character is a horror film screenwriter, and the first half hour of this student film is vignettes dreamt by her, and typed later for use as potential ideas for new horror films. A disembodied hand punches through the door of her office, then rips the door off its hinges to get to her- but it's all just another one of her dreams.She and her friends go camping and tell each other weird stories, which she also thinks will make great material for the horror movie she's writing. Here is where the film becomes slow moving and plodding, with the typical grotesque 80s clothes only serving to annoy.Chick's chase through checkerboard hallway mazes while being followed by a rabid dog is surreal and eerie; but its effect negated by dated computer graphics, and bizarrely out-of-place ragtime piano music, as she suddenly appears in an old west ghost town.A twist says that the entire film is the work of Satan, telling tales around a campfire to Schilling and the rest of her friends. Schilling then wakes up, turns these events into a screenplay, and becomes a filmmaker with a huge hit from it, in a supremely bewildering ending."Student Produced at USC", this has a few interesting ideas and camera shots, but painfully slow pacing, and not much action for a horror flick. It would have worked better as a 30-minutes long short film.

Steve Nyland (Squonkamatic) You can do worse for a very obscure little home video era horror thriller with zero boobs or beheadings. Not quite a horror anthology in the traditional sense of the word, which is why I sought it out. More sort of an extended series of loosely connected psychological thriller sections, connected by the common thread that they all feature the same actors. First up is a nifty one-set take on the "Devil's Gift" premise of an unwanted acquisition you can't seem to get rid of. I liked how ordinary it looked. Second is a bizarre version of "Groundhog Day" with a misfit two-bit loser finding himself stuck in a causality loop of greed and murder. Last segment is the most interesting with a demented twist on "Tron" with an anti-gaming violence crusader running for her life in a human sized rat maze.Most was shot on film, the final segment on video equipment and the blend of the two mediums makes an interesting concoction. The wrap-around segment of a ditzy writer attempting to write a horror movie isn't very involving and Daniel Roebuck's presence in the film is puzzling ... Maybe he went to high school with one of the producers? He is sort of in the Peter Cushing role, the screen presence who out-acts everyone just by sitting up in his chair and looking involved. There's some decent squibbage and a melted head but no real splatter and fans of exploitation may be disappointed by how respectful the film is towards its female cast members.For that matter the "rat maze" sequence is itself a little bit of commentary on the over-hyped nature of pop culture, it's inherent admiration of violence and misogyny, and how we all get caught up in the frenzy of consuming it every now and then. Kind of interesting to see it in the wake of the Aurora Batman massacre & reflect upon how the pop culture represented in such films found a horrifying real-world form in its barbarity. Not to minimize the event but to point out that a popular culture eventually starts breeding gross parodic versions of itself to mimic those forms which it celebrates. Sick minds latch onto base whims partly on suggestion, which means only that the madness of film violence & its de-sensitizing effect on already disturbed minds can lead to genuine chaos. Like nobody knew that already, and whoever crafted the sequence had to have an intimate familiarity with late 80s arcade gaming to have skewered it so effectively. Commentary aside that one sequence is maybe worth the effort of seeking out this understandably obscure film for lovers of low budget regionally produced horror films. One segment finds a participant getting high scores in a video game based on the number of rapes & kills he had committed, and a genuine belly laugh awaits those who get to watch the Pac Man doggie chase it's victim. Pretty interesting stuff! the banal locations, non-acting and pert screen presence of sexy Vivian Schilling amounting to more than the sum of its parts. Just don't go in expecting disembowelings or female exterior anatomy lessons and this will give it up for you. Kept the attention of two very jaded horror film buffs who have seen "Header", and were drinking beer.6/10

Paul Andrews I guess it had to happen sooner or later. I've finally found a film so obscure that there is only one other rambling review on the IMDb and I couldn't find any thing else about it on the internet. Well ladies and gentlemen, I present here for your viewing pleasure my complete, authoritative, comprehensive and totally uncensored review for Terror Eyes! The only review of Terror Eyes you will ever need. It starts with an on screen caption that reads 'HOLLYWOOD Writer's Strike. No More Movies...No More Horror! What's the Devil to do?' And no, I don't know why they spelt Hollywood in capital letters. After the opening credits have played we find a young woman named Eva Adams (co-producer Vivian Schilling) who looks like a secretary in a room sat in front of a type writer. She appears to have writers block and can't seem to type anything she is happy with. Suddenly a cloud of smoke starts to seep in through the door, and a couple of red glowing eyes appear. As if by magic she begins to type, the camera shows us the piece of paper in the type writer and it says 'Book of Life' which leads us nicely into the opening story.This tale is set almost entirely within an apartment belonging to Troy Floyd (Lance August) and his wife Starta (Vivian Schilling, again) who are getting ready to go out and meet some friends. Someone knocks their door, they answer it and a man named Clark Rogers (Daniel Roebuck, with a dodgy moustache) gives them a book. As they read it, they discover their entire lives have been accurately portrayed within the pages, past, present and a horrifying future............Eva Adams wakes up, it was all a nightmare. Her husband Richard (Daniel Roebuck, without dodgy moustache this time) complains that they need to be up early tomorrow to go camping with their friends. Eva complains right back saying her boss has told her it's up to her to write a horror film because of the writer's strike, and that she can't remember her nightmare so she can't use that. The next morning Eva and Richard set of in their van and pick their friends up, Julie (Gina Hightower), Mannie (Dan Bell), Scott Parker (Lance August, again) and April (Becky McGovern). Once deep into the woods they set up camp and decide to try and help Eva by telling scary stories. Which leads us into the second story called 'Perfect Alibi'.Mannie (Dan Bell, again) is a small time crook who owes a loan shark named Mike (Christopher Roland) some money. Mike gives him the opportunity to pay his debt off by robbing his ex-wife's (Elinor Baggett) house. He says they will spilt the loot 50/50. After Mannie has set himself up with an alibi he breaks into her house and finds her dead on the floor. He finds himself reliving the same night over and over again, only changing slightly each time. Mannie tries to use this to his advantage but just after he thinks he has the perfect alibi something rather unexpected happens that he hadn't seen coming...........Back round the camp fire and it's on with our third and final story called 'Snake Eyes'.Alex Bender (Diana James) has just beaten an opponent (Paul Caruso) to become the worlds first female champion chess player. Soon after facing the press she is kidnapped by her chauffeur (Gary Hodgson) and taken to an isolated mansion owned by Martin Rubenstein (Phil Lowey) president of the Rubenstein game corporation who make violent video games like 'slasher' where the object is to kill and rape as many people as possible and get the high score. Alex is a very outspoken critic of the Rubenstein corporation. Now Alex must play a deadly real life game that only one can win, and the price for defeat is death............The film then switches back to the camp and rounds off with a couple of silly twist endings. Each segment have their own set of credits. The first segment and the wrap around story appear to be co-written and directed by Eric Parkinson, who also has a small role in the film as a T.V. reporter at the end. The second segment was written and directed by Steve Sommers and 'student produced at university of Southern California'. The third story has Micheal Rissi credited as writer and director and was 'student produced at USG', and also features footage playing 'under' the credits not found in the actual film. What this film appears to be is three student made films all stuck together with a wrap around story. It would be interesting to know what grades these films got! It's generally quite poorly made with bad acting, effects, music and production design. But I must admit I quite liked the individual stories, especially the third one 'Snake Eyes'. There's not much blood or gore, a melted face, a few gunshot wounds and a sequence in which a large snake eats a rat. Difficult to recommend as it's technically so rough around the edges, but I felt it wasn't a complete waste of my time. A+ for effort, E- for execution.

Triple7 If you want to see something different for a change (instead of your average psycho-killer, haunted house, monster movie, etc.) then rent Terror Eyes. The movie just has so many plot twists and stories in itself. It changes from horror to a suspense to some Twilight Zone episode. It is weird and many probably won't appreciate it like I do. But this movie was just something originally different for a change. You'd think lots of more famous movies of today might of copied off it hoping that no one saw it such as Jumanji, The Never-Ending Story, Run Lola Run, Cube, etc. That just shows what a variety of genres you get from this surprisingly good (and many times confusing) horror flick. Unfortunately it is very unpopular and I'm sure many videostores don't carry it. It depends on your taste, but I definitely think this movie is worth watching. I gave it a 6. The acting's not that bad and (for the time-period it was made in, of course) the effects aren't that bad. The box throws you off and summaries about it in movie-books and other internet sites do also so don't be fooled. This movie has a little bit of everything in it even if it is a little cheesy.