Monday, October 9, 2017

Eyeball, Vermont Psychos head to Spain

Is everyone in Vermont a homicidal maniac? America's dirty little secret, though not from Italian director Umberto Lenzi, concerns this very question. So all you Europeans beware, and look at 1975's "Eyeball" as a warning, they may look like peaceful tourists, but if they're from Vermont, I assure you they are homicidal maniacs slaves to the imaginary voices in their heads.
A bunch of tourists from Burlington, Vermont (this is mentioned many times in this Lenzi film) land in Barcelona for a week of sightseeing. These are weirdos. A dad who fantasizes about murdering his daughter, a creepy priest, a secretary having an affair with her boss, two bickering but sultry lesbians, and more make up the group. Paulette (Martine Brochard)...we see her nude a lot...joins the group for a mysterious reason. Naiba (Ines Pellegrini) and Lisa (Mirta Miller) are the two lesbians...we see them nude a lot. The first murder occurs, a young lady has her eye gouged out as she is stabbed several times. A half second after this slaughter, Mark (John Richardson) appears at the crime scene. In fact, he has a penchant for doing this throughout the film. Mark is Paulette's boss and his wife Alma (Marta May) is insane and may have killed a girl in Burlington, Vermont.
As we meet more of the characters, they all have motives for killing indiscriminately. The old priest is really weird and usually is the last person the victims see before they assume room temperature. As Paula tells Mark he must divorce his wife if he wants any more sex with her, Mark gets grouchy and discovers that his dagger he used in Vietnam is the murder weapon. When Lisa takes a break from having sex with Naiba to help Mark find the killer, she is killed, hence her eye is taken. As the tourists diminish in number and eyeballs are gouged out, the nudity and gore increase. As Mark emerges as the number one suspect, it appears that his crazy wife Alma has followed him to Barcelona. Is Paulette in peril from an insane and jealous wife? Is a jealous lesbian the insaniac? Just why is the killer gouging out eyeballs of the victims?
Umberto Lenzi has done a fine job capturing the homicidal insanity of Burlington, Vermont. The questions are all answered and I gotta say that the answers are quite shocking. You won't believe why the insane Vermonter desires eyes of corpses. This film is perhaps a good old fashioned sex and gore Italian horror film, or a warning to the world community to join an effort to isolate and quarantine Vermont from civilization. Enjoy "Eyeball" (aka "The Secret Killer") available on YouTube.

2 comments:

  1. Who knew the maple syrup capital of the world was also homicide central? Hey, can I have a side of blood with my flapjacks? Good review, Christopher.

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  2. Nice review Christopher, I gotta say I thoroughly disliked this one & found it really dull, plodding and considering it's a Lenzi flick pretty damn tame. I even revisited a few months back as I was appreciating gialli more & it still did nothing for me.
    It's easily my least favourite Giallo & Lenzi film, personally. Very nice review again, the film just didn't work for me alas.

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