Review of Eyes Without a Face (1960) by Adam T — 29 Dec 2016

Saw it on halloween, looking for that spooky vibe. This is known as a horror classic, at least a pretty grim piece with some nasty stills.

A terrific story, where a doctor tries to save his pretty daughters face. She was in some sort of accident, but he failed to fix it the first time. Now she has a wound as a face - no skin at all. She has to wear a mask as her father tries to find suitable girls to steal faces from. Edith Scob as Christiane has the loveliest of all faces, though.

Very influentional mask, it's been seen in a lot of movies and loads of known films has used it as inspiration. The "Halloween" series is probably the most famous one, but films like "Under The Skin" and "Holy Motors" has clear referances too.

That operating scene is pretty unsettling, back in the days it must have been a true shocker. Now it's just pretty creepy and well executed. Not directly scary since it never got that shock feature - a good thing. The vibe is still uncomfortable and the shooting in total are very good. It looks perfect in black and white - I can't imagine it being done in color actually. The cool theme song needs a mention, and so does the lovely ending.

7.5 out of 10 doves.