Review of Eyes Without a Face (1960) by Josh M — 24 Jan 2009

An odd little French film that never really found its audience. It's too arty to be a true horror film, but it's far too grim (and occasionally bloody) to ever succeed with the snooty art crowd of the time.

This weird division has given it a cult following over time, and rightfully so...and yet, it also keeps the film from being entirely successful. To be sure, I loved the eerie mood, and the occasional bursts of blood were all the more effective for their rarity.

It's just that, in the end, the film's not entirely sure what it wants to be. And, hey, I'm okay with that - I liked it a lot, and found some of the visuals (particularly the mask used in the film) to be striking and unsettling.

In the end, though, it sticks more as a strange little experiment than anything truly classic. (In a lot of ways, it would make a nice double feature with Carnival of Souls, another film that struggled between art and horror, although I didn't like this nearly as much as Carnival.

).