Olhar Mortal

Anyone who had not seen this film, but had heard about its various titles, may expect something interesting and worthwhile. The reality is that this is a turgid, slow moving, load of nonsense! First of all, the soundtrack is quite abysmal, and the background sounds tend to drown out the dialogue, which is no great shakes anyway. The editing is quite appalling, and the film lurches from scene to scene without any great pattern to it. The ending is quite ludicrous, although after sitting through 90 minutes of dross, it is a welcome relief to the viewer. In all in, a sad effort which only merits two points courtesy of the lead, Lana Wood!!

I saw this at a drive-in (shock!), but it was called "Fury of the Succubus". Its only real redeeming value, to me, is nostalgic: it's among the last of the drive-in second features ever put into wide release. From the late 40s, until they were effectively replaced by the direct to video market in the early 80s, countless of these gems at once horrified and amused the teenage clientèle after the families had pulled out of the lot to get the kiddies to bed. This was also the perfect example of the movies you stayed to NOT watch when you were there on a date. If not for "films" like this, a lot of us guys would have graduated high school as virgins!

My review was written in October 1982 after a Times Square screening.

"Satan's Mistress", lensed in 1980 under the title "Dark Eyes", is a supernatural sexploitation picture sporting name talent but cheap production values. Weak story and direction hurt its theatrical chances but plentiful nude footage of buxom lead Lana Wood should create mucho vidcassette interest. Film went through interim title change, "Demon Rage" and "Fury of the Succubus" before its present moniker.

Silly premise is that dead spirits wander in limbo awaiting their final judgment, and in this lonely state are drawn to similarly lonely living folks whom the devil uses as bait to "catch" these spirits or souls. Lisa (Lana Wood) is just such a lonely woman, pining away at her beach house while being neglected by her busy with work husband Burt (Tom Hallick).

In a cheap effect imitating Al Adamson's 1977 "Nurse SherrI" film, a purple animated squiggle enters Lisa's bedroom one night and she is raped by some invisible entity. Next time, instead of invisible the spirit is personified by a dark, romantic man clad in black (Kabir Bedi). While both husband and daughter Michelle (Sherry Scott) are disturbed by Lisa's reclusiveness, she's getting it on almost constantly with the mysterious intruder.

With corny paranormal phenomena and hallucinations accelerating, plus the appearance of a black cat familiar, friend and mystic Anne-Marie (Britt Ekland)( tries to help, and local California priest Father Stratten (John Carradine) offers his advice. Meanwhile, a mysterious woman Belline (Elsie-Anne) tries to recruit Michelle to the devil's work.

Payoff is a gory death for Anne-Marie's husband (Don Galloway), very improbably killed by a guillotine that just happens to be stored in Lisa's basement. Fiey basement climax has Bedi the spirit nobly leaving Lisa and going to Hell.

With poor special effects (a monster that looks like a big pulsating eye and dream sequences which are blurry and eye-straining), filmmaker James Polakof is in big trouble. Problem is exacerbated by photography or printing which makes the interior scenes look too dark. A good cast is the film's drawing card, with Wood impressive in her frequent simulations of sexual passion and Bedi, currently costarring in "Octopussy", perfectly cast as the silent, Valentino-esque romantic stranger. Other roles, including top-billed Britt Ekland, are strictly functional.

Plenty O'Toole... I mean Lana Wood, younger, bustier sister of the late Natalie Wood, plays a woman in an unhappy marriage who starts having a perverse love affair with a tall, dark, handsome stranger who happens to be a minion of hell. Well, at first the Hell-bound minion rapes her, but she later decides she likes it and they start getting it on regularly. After that, some occasionally stylish touches show up in this low budget sexploitation horror film.

Film is really nothing more than excuse to show Lana's breasts (probably to distract from the sight of her horribly big hair).

What's really disturbing is that this might have actually been based on a true story.

Another Bond girl, Britt Eckland, also appears.

Greetings And Salutations, and welcome to my review of Dark Eyes; before launching into my critique, here's a breakdown of my ratings:

Story - 0.75 Direction - 0.75 Pace - 0.50 Acting - 1.00 Enjoyment - 0.75

TOTAL - 3.75 out of 10

Oh dear me, this film doesn't have a lot going for it so I'll try to keep it short - if not sweet.

Evidently, being lonely and depressed opens you up to occult experiences. That means at least half the world's population must have had a demonic visitation. Mine must be way overdue, and if dear ol' Luci's reading this, please make mine blonde and shapely, cheers you ol' devil you.

The story is the first problem with the film. It starts as your run-of-the-mill sexual haunting, which The Entity accomplished much better. Though, by the end, it's transformed into a twisted love story. Unfortunately, the writers didn't have the skill to complete the conversion believably or smoothly. In all honesty, the story is as jagged as a werewolf's fangs. Every element from the dysfunctional family and their separate emotions to their over-sharing friends to the demonic love needed better explanation and structure. Due to it being a mess, it becomes implausible, which makes it tedious.

Regrettably, the direction is as sloppy. The director opts for a point and shoot approach with a single meandering tempo. So added to the tedium of the tale comes the lethargy of the filmmaking. The special effects are not special enough - only the decapitation is notable, and it's not that great either. Though, the worst is the double exposure. I'm still not sure what the globular shape represented - but what is important is that I didn't and still don't care.

I felt sorry for Britt Ekland and Don Galloway: Their talent is wasted in the film. At least Galloway gave his all, and I hope he had fun doing it - he is, by and far, the best of the bunch. Ekland's name was top of the bill to get the bums on seats. I think she realised this because her performance wasn't the best. As for the leads, well, they were so wooden the writers should have changed the family name to the Redwoods.

If you've not guessed it yet, I do not recommend Dark Eyes, or any other names it hides under, for your viewing pleasure. I don't know you, and I'm not giving you a reason to hunt me down, so steer well clear of this piccy.

Please feel free to visit my Absolute Horror list to see where I ranked Dark Eyes, or better yet, to find something more enjoyable to watch.

Take Care & Stay Well.