Olhos Mortais

Being Italian, I'm always happy when good products like this "Crystal Eyes" are baked.

The director Eros Puglielli takes his cue from classic Italian thriller films from the 70s such as Argento, Bava and Fulci and manages to orchestrate a dark, very violent and very fascinating film, with atmospheres that immerse you in a truly exhausting spiral of terror, in which involved from the beginning until the shocking final twist that reveals the identity of the killer.

Honorable mention for the excellent cast, starting with the very good Luigi Lo Casio up to the beautiful and talented Lucia Jimenez.

A thriller to be seen and enjoyed without a doubt.

Very troubled Inspector Giacomo Amaldi tries to find an elusive killer who enjoys chopping parts of his victims and replacing their limbs with a similar part from a Victorian doll.He investigates triple homicide with his partner.It seems that the killer may be taxidermist.Someone is stalking an attractive anthropology student Lucia Jimenez.It's up to Giacomo to protect her too.Very stylish,gloomy and bloody thriller made by Eros Puglielli.The script by Dario Argento regular Franco Ferrini is obviously influenced by David Fincher's "Se7en",but "Eyes of the Crystal" has a stylish look of giallo.The film is fast-paced and incredibly tense.The cinematography is splendid and there are some gruesome murder scenes.The climax is slightly disappointing,though.8 body parts out of 10.

If you thought good giallos were made only in 70s & 80s, watch this. Very stylish & well made movie.

If I would rate the movie compared to other Italian movies I have seen, I would rate it higher, but compared with international horror, it is average. However, it is not the same type of average, as the acting is good, the plot a lot more complex than US movies and the feel is a good old fashioned slow tension increase. The production values are not so good though and I couldn't help wonder: if they dubbed the voices over anyway, and done it poorly, why not do it in English? :)

I compared it with Se7en more because it is an icon of movies about personally involved policemen trying to catch a megalomaniac psychopath, other than that it is not too similar. In fact, it is based on a book, which probably explains the depth of the plot. I thought that the darkness in the main character (that's the policeman :) ) was a very nice touch and the movie could have done better without him explaining why he was so driven with his work. Also, having every single character involved with the criminal was a bit of a stretch.

Bottom line: very decent horror movie, a bit slow sometimes, other times predictable, but nice enough. Probably with an English translation I would have liked it better still.

Most effective, and if this Italian thriller is a little more C.S.I. than Argento, maybe that is no bad thing these days! Storming and very scary start with the momentum not really letting up till about halfway through. For me there is just a little too much soul searching from the otherwise most effective lead, Luigi lo Cascio. This is further complicated by his developing relationship with the also most effective, Bulgarian actress, with the catchy name of, Desislava Tenekedjieva. It is only a slight carp but I felt that at a crucial stage this pause for thought and sex didn't actually help the film. Anyway it is soon back to the very warped and hard edged action and I guess we then begin to wish maybe we had stayed in the bedroom. A very dark and violent film with, if not gushing gore, plenty of gruesome and bloody sights as seemingly random folk get cut about and carried away.