Surprisingly incoherent and boring

It is a performances centric movie

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

I didn’t really have many expectations going into the movie (good or bad), but I actually really enjoyed it. I really liked the characters and the banter between them.

North-America circa 1750. English-speaking colonists are threatened by dangers both seen and guessed-at : natural perils, Indians, disease. Mister Will, a charismatic but disquieting "preacher", entices a married woman away from her husband. The wife and her teenage daughter become part of a small group of followers who believe Mister Will's tales about a promised land. The little band sets out on a journey into the unknown..."Eyes of fire" is basically an allegory about the difficult life of early colonists, who face two great dangers : that of committing suicide through internal strife and that of being swallowed whole by a vast wilderness. It's a pleasantly quirky and unpredictable little horror movie, with interesting characters and an unusual plot. The imagery is both original and unsettling, although some of the visual and special effects, watched anno Domini 2018, can seem somewhat dated or home-spun. "Eyes" also has some intelligent things to say about the kind of religiously inspired guide - or Guide with a capital G - who is all manly and brave and determined when it comes to leading his flock into trouble, but is as useful as a wet sock when it comes to finding solutions. On the minus side : some VERY annoying music.

I remembered seeing this when I was a kid and it scared the crap out of me. I still remember somewhat vividly some of the scenes. Going back nearly 30 years later, I was thinking that it might be good to watch again for Halloween. I thought wrong. An outcast heretic/sinner preacher goes with his family and a few other random people to find somewhere where they can live in adultery. Instead they find hostile Indians, and take refuge in a valley where they Indians are afraid to go. Always a good idea. The "mystery" of death valley is given away before they even get there (you see, the blood of all innocent animals that are killed collects in some places, and forms into a blood hungry mindless demon which is obviously the collective will of all innocent animals.) They find a deserted settlement there which was obviously destroyed and the former residents turn out to be flesh eating ghosts. Several deaths are involved. A special needs/witch/Irish girl helps them escape. Then finally, they nail the kids in a coffin and shove it into a river to save them. Bad acting. Plot that stops making sense after the first 30 minutes. Bad special effects. This might have been good if it had been on on MST3K. You will find yourself rooting for the deaths of the settlers just to get the movie over with. Most of the reviewers of this only pretend to like it because they think it's cool to like obscure movies. This one is obscure because IT'S CRAP. I would have given this a -10, but the scale was from 1-10.

This is a wonderful find for any horror film buff who can appreciate the slow-build of the typical "giallo" film, to which it compares stylistically, with a good dose of Gothic influence. Rather than load all of the budget toward the effects and skimp everywhere else, the film-makers opted to use the relatively unknown and overlooked talents of the best low-budget effects and pyrotechnics person in the business, Tassilo Baur. (I personally witnessed him put together special effects on a USC student film in 1981, on a budget of about $100 that looked like thousands. If you look carefully at the effects here, you'll see how well-realized they are for such little money.) Anyway, the effort in this gem was well-placed in the story, the direction and the acting. Overall good production values make this look as good as most studio stuff, and it's much more thoughtful. Great eerie locations and soundtrack add to the atmosphere. Fans of horror films that offer more than violence only for the sake of violence will appreciate this find. Recommended!

I saw this film by accident back in 1983 as a rental from Blockbuster. I have been hooked ever since, turning many people on to it's original story. The movie is creepy and eerie and yes the ending is open ended by the references and the characters make up for this trust me! It is an old American settlement in the woods with references to witches and druids and the evil that lies within us all. There are some neat Hitchcock like quick pans and sounds with only references to the actual happenings allowing your brain to fill in the pieces nicely. The scenes mostly take place in a dark and omniscient woods. There are some religious references which play into the plot as well. I am looking for it on DVD, you should too.