EYES OF A STRANGER
US, 1981, 85 minutes, Colour.
Lauren Tewes, John Disanti, Jennifer Jason Leigh.
Directed by Ken Wiederhorn.
Eyes of a Stranger is a horror murder thriller. It is better than average of its kind. It is gruesome and exploitive, especially in its visual presentation of the killings. However, it attempts plot and characterisation - a step above such films as Friday the 13th. and its derivatives. It offers a kind of warning - the sexually deranged murderer in our cities and his stalking and raping of women. The film advises caution and the use of the media to help people be alert.
The screenplay is well enough written with the gradual introduction to the murderer after his crimes and the confrontation with the somewhat fool hardy courageous heroine. She is played by Lauren Tewes of The Love Boat television series. Brief, exciting and suspenseful in a horrific kind of way.
1. The popularity of the horror-murder films in the late '70s-early 1980s? Their nightmare quality? The audience aghast at the ugly aspects of city life?
2. How well do these films frighten their audiences? In a human and credible context? Headline stories - and stories behind the headlines? Watching the deaths and the vicarious experience of the deaths? How exploitive is this kind of material?
3. The multiple murder genre? The conventions of this kind of film - victims, violence, the sadism of the murderer, his madness and the final confrontation? The heroine and her detective work, courage, confrontation of the villain? The strength of the plot? The portrayal of the violence? The moral behind the story?
4. The Miami setting - its ordinary city lifestyle, the sleazy parts of the city, television studios, law enforcement, business offices, the streets and their lack of safety? The apartments? The flavour of the city? The police work and their helplessness? How credible and authentic? Audiences identifying with situation and characters?
5. The development of the plot - presentation of the victims and their being murdered? Jane and her story? The flashbacks and her motivation? The gradual revelation of the killer? The build-up to the confrontation? The various strands coming together successfully?
6. The portrait of the victims: the girl in the sleazy show, her walking in the city, her being followed, the windows. the boyfriend, the phone calls? Her death and the murder of the boyfriend - the gruesomeness of his head in the fish tank? The secretary and the car and her being killed? The boy and the girl in the car? The terrorising of Tracey? The confrontation with Jane? The importance of the phone calls? The murderer following his victims? The ugliness of the rape? His disguise and his cover?
7. Jane and her television work? Relationship with David? Her care for Tracey and the importance of the flashbacks and Tracey's traumatic experience and Jane's responsibility? Protecting her? Her items on the television and warnings? The risks she took, especially going over the balcony? Her curiosity? Her devices in getting the murderer's name, the key to his apartment? Examining the apartment, the car, the shoes? Trying to persuade David? Her calling the murderer by phone and using his techniques? His recognising her phrases on the television? Her search of his apartment and the cuckoo sound? The final confrontation and death?
8. Tracey's story, her disability, her managing in the home with Jane, David? The confrontation with the murderer and her being terrorised, the trauma and her gaining her voice? Her discovering herself in the bathroom mirror? The shooting? Talking?
9. David and Jane, the scenes with Tracey? David's disbelief yet his checking out the murderer?
10. The characterising of the murderer, his anonymity, brutality, his car, personality, name, apartment, phone calls and his anxiety, his connecting the TV voice with Jane's, the end and the gruesomeness of his death?
11. What was the audience left with - story, characters. horror? Nightmare, reality? A warning about urban violence? Man-woman relationships and the exploitation of women?
