BA_Harrison

If you're a fan of exploitative grindhouse' cinema of the seventies, then The Headless Eyes will be a real treat: it's far from the best movie you'll ever see, but it has all of the traits that a classic grindhouse flick should have... a lurid plot with a manic, sweaty lead performance from Bo Brundin as crazed killer Arthur Malcom, who scoops out his victims' eyeballs with a spoon to use in his artwork; a sleazy New York setting; poor picture quality, complete with scratches, light leaks, and hairs in the gate; a weird experimental soundtrack; and some rudimentary gore, mostly Malcolm fondling the bloody orbs that he has just plucked from their sockets.

The acting is dreadful (most notably during a scene where a TV reporter interviews bystanders at a murder scene), the direction and editing are slapdash, and, like Abel Ferrara's The Driller Killer, the film occasionally wanders into pretentious arthouse territory, which makes it all the more oddball. There's also a totally redundant subplot involving a young female art student, who attempts to strike up a friendship with Malcom. Perhaps the original intention was to have this character return for the finalé, but it looks as though writer/director Kent Bateman might have run out of time and money, which would explain the girl's failure to reappear and the film's very abrupt ending.