Augen der Nacht

The 90's went through a phase of these cookie cutter erotic thrillers and Night Eyes was one of the main culprits. It developed into a franchise, 4 movies in total and if the rest are like this it doesn't bode well.

You've seen an erotic thriller before I sure, a generic thriller movie with sex scenes popping up to prevent the viewer from getting bored.

This one tells the story of a man who hires a pair of security guards to keep an eye on his soon to be ex wife in a hope they'll record something that will help in in court when it comes to the settlement. One of the security guards starts to fall for her and the rest writes itself.

Of course a thriller isn't a thriller without a twist or two and the ones here you'll work out for yourself pretty early in the film.

Starring regular in these types of movie Tanya Roberts it's generic, it's trite and it's clearly not aimed at those seeking something they need to think about. Standard thriller stuff then cue the slow jazz for a sex scene and repeat.

The Good:

It ended

The Bad:

Soundtrack gets real old real fast

Nothing we haven't seen before

If an erotic thriller fails to be sexy they've failed one very front

My review was written in April 1990 after watching the movie on Prism video cassette.

Tanya Roberts approaches X-rated territory in Andrew Stevens' entertaining sex thriller "Night Eyes", a "Body Heat" clone bound to become an important rental title and conversation piece.

With theatrical ratings frequently in the news, this direct-to-video release comes in both R and longer, unrated editions, latter reviewed here. Steamy sex scenes of Roberts and Stevens should generate plenty of word-of-mouth.

Stevens, who co-wrote and served as supervising producer, toplines as a guard for Night Eyes Security Agency, working with his brother (Cooper Huckabee). The two are hired by British rocker Warwick Sims to install home surveillance cameras, supposedly as protection for his wife but, in reality, to gather incriminating info against her for a divorce case.

Roberts is the oversexed lady in question, abused by her husband and cheating on him. First lover to be taped by Stevens' cameras is guest Stephen Meadows and, before long, straight-arrow Stevens succumbs to her wiles.

Several stagings and Richard Gaser's musical score (with wailing sax solos) recall Lawrence Kasdan's "Body Heat". Roberts is extremely alluring in the Kathleen Turner role, telegraphing her bad intentions. Stevens makes for a believable dupe, though a final sex scene after he has figured out her guilt seems a bit much.

The romantic couplings deliver more than expected from name talent, beyond what qualifies for an R rating but never hardcore. Roberts has not gone as far as European actresses but is bound to raise eyebrows among her American peers.

Jag Mundhra's direction is convincing until a hurried windup, typical of video-driven projects.

Pic successfully demonstrates a solution to the theatrical ratings impasse between distributors and Motion Picture Association of America -even a major like Paramount can handle unrated films via home video, in this case distributing for indie Prism Entertainment.

The most common description used about "Night Eyes", both on this board and elsewhere, is "erotic thriller"; no fewer than seven of the previous twelve reviewers use this phrase. It is not, however, a particularly accurate description. The phrase "erotic thriller" generally suggests a softcore porno film in which a generic thriller plot is used to provide the links between, and a rationale for, numerous sex scenes. There have, of course, been plenty of films of that type, but this is not one of them. Although an adulterous love affair forms the mainspring of the plot, there are no actual love scenes and no nudity. There is a lot more eroticism in some mainstream Hollywood thrillers from this period such as "Fatal Attraction".

Nikki Walker, the estranged wife of a millionaire British rock star, hires Night Eyes, a firm of security consultants, to provide security at her mansion. Unknown to her, however, the company has been bribed by her husband Brian to spy on her and find evidence that she is having an affair. Brian Walker and his lawyer believe that if they can find such evidence they will be able to achieve a much more favourable financial settlement from the courts. (This implies that the Californian courts take, or at least took in the early nineties, a very moralistic attitude to divorce. I cannot imagine a British court reducing a wife's financial settlement on the grounds that she had formed a sexual relationship with another man after separating from her husband). Things, however, do not go according to plan. Will Griffith, the bodyguard who is supposed to be spying on Nikki, falls in love with the attractive young woman. Not only does he hide from Brian's lawyer the fact that Nikki is having an affair with Michael Vincent, a film star, he also begins sleeping with her himself. The movie then chronicles the disastrous consequences of this relationship.

The best among the cast is probably the little-known actor Warwick Sims as the hedonistic, self-obsessed rock star Brian, probably based on a combination of several British rockers from around this period. (No names mentioned). None of the other actors, however, makes any impression. Tanya Roberts could hardly be described as little-known; indeed, as a Playboy model and Charlie's Angel and Bond Girl she was a well-known celebrity during the eighties and early nineties. Her fame, however, had more to do with her looks than with her talent, a quality with which she was notably under-endowed. (Having a Hollywood scriptwriter for a husband probably helped as well). Here she seems to wander through the film as though in a trance, unable to connect with anyone around her. She had already received two Razzie "Worst Actress" nominations for "Sheena" and "A View to a Kill", and was lucky not to receive a third here. Andrew Stevens as Will is slightly better, but "slightly better than dreadful" is hardly high praise.

In 1990 some people obviously liked this film; it was a financial success at the box-office, having been made on a very small budget, and spawned three sequels, none of which I have seen. Today, however, it comes across as a very poor example of the standard nineties thriller, with second-rate (or in Roberts' case third-rate) acting and a hackneyed paranoid plot revolving around the questions of "who can trust whom?" and "who is betraying whom?" Less erotic thriller than neurotic thriller. 4/10

The rock star Brian Walker (Warwick Sims) is surprised by his wife Nicky (Tanya Roberts) shagging a woman in the bathroom in a party. Nicky asks the divorce, and Brian hires a security company to spy on her to prove that she is unfaithful and has love affairs. The security guard Will Griffith (Andrew Stevens) hides a camera in her bedroom and peeps on Nicky having sex with her lover but he hides the truth from Brian. Will protects Nicky from the violent Brian and they have a love affair. Nicky gets a restraint order against Brian and one night he breaks in the house and Will, who has fallen in love with Nicky, kills him with three shots. Will is prosecuted for the death of Brian, and he finds that Brian apparently was not the responsible for the aggressions to Nicky. Will investigates and discovers the truth about the whole case.

"Night Eyes" was a successful erotic thriller in the 90's, when I saw this movie twice. Today I have decided to watch my VHS again and the sexy femme fatale Tanya Roberts really makes this flick worthwhile. The flawed story has a reasonable development but the conclusion is absolutely disappointing and senseless. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "Olhos Noturnos" ("Night Eyes")

Note: On 29 July 2021, I saw this film again.

In the early 1990s, there was a craze in Hollywood (mostly in the direct-to-video industry) for the "erotic thriller". After several years the craze came to an end and has not made a comeback, probably for one simple reason - these movies were awful, and "Night Eyes" is no exception. For a real cheapie, I'll admit that the production values aren't too bad, and the acting by most of the players is passable. But the movie is for the most part a chore to sit through. I rented the unrated version, but there is surprisingly not a lot of nudity (and no full-frontal nudity) or on screen sex. In fact, there is only one scene that I found was erotic (and only mildly so), and it happens after more than an hour of the running time has passed. Maybe others might find this movie hot - the movie was popular enough to spawn three sequels - but as for me, I was bored by the experience.