It's a mild crowd pleaser for people who are exhausted by blockbusters.

Tells a fascinating and unsettling true story, and does so well, without pretending to have all the answers.

The movie really just wants to entertain people.

The movie's not perfect, but it sticks the landing of its message. It was engaging - thrilling at times - and I personally thought it was a great time.

Madness (1994) ** (out of 4) Bizarre giallo from Bruno Mattei about a psychopath stalking the streets and not only killing people but also removing their eyeballs. The story centers around a writer (Monica Seller) who's books include a character who removes the eyes of their victim and the police think that maybe the killer is working his way up to her. Director Mattei was known for ripping off various movies in his career and this one here goes after Dario Argento's TENEBRE and really doesn't do it too much justice. If you're looking for a serious giallo then this here certainly isn't it. If you're just looking for a gory film with some laughs then you might enjoy MADNESS. There are all sorts of problems with this film but there's no doubt that not too much thought was put into the picture. If you've seen the Argento film then you're not going to be shocked by anything here other than the writer ripping off lines of dialogue and the entire story structure. What sets this film apart from others in the genre is that there are a few gruesome death scenes where we see the eyes ripped out of people. Sadly this doesn't happen enough or else the film might have been somewhat better. Even stranger is some of the dialogue including a scene where the police are trying to come up with possible suspects and one brings a guy up who slaughtered countless hookers. The only cop tells him that the guy has an alibi, which tells you that this murderer is out walking the streets and I'm guessing spent no time in jail. Another funny moment comes from the main character and her constant screams of terror. Performances are okay for the most part but with the English dubbing it's really hard to fully judge them. The brief nudity and sex comes towards the end of the film so one shouldn't expect too much of that. This film really isn't going to appeal to too many and I think most people who check it out will be Argento fans wanting to see what Mattei did to that story.

Bruno Mattei is a director famous for making his own versions of popular films; so you would certainly be forgiven for thinking that Eyes Without a Face is a remake of the Georges Franju classic of the same title; and probably quite shocked to learn that it isn't! You're likely to be even more shocked to find out that this is actually a good film! The Giallo genre was most popular in the early seventies; although Mattei didn't start making films in the mid seventies, and by then the likes of exploitation, zombie films and cannibals had taken over as the most popular Italian export. However, the fact that the Giallo had been and gone by 1994 didn't stop Mattei from making one anyway. The plot focuses on a serial killer who is murdering people by way of plucking their eyes out; a modus operandi obviously inspired by a comic book known as 'Doctor Dark'. A few girls get killed and it would appear that the creator of the comic book, a beautiful young woman named Giovanna Dei, will be the killer's next victim when the disembodied eyes start turning up at her place...Despite being made in 1994; this is every bit the classic styled Giallo, from the confusing plot to thin characters and brutal murder scenes. The film starts with a well worked scene at a go-cart race and the first half moves quite quickly and Mattei manages to keep up the suspense, which is definitely to the film's credit. However, the middle part of the film begins to get a bit tepid; but luckily things are recovered by the end. The film stars Monica Seller, in one of only three film appearances, and it's a shame she didn't work more often because she's very cute. Any violence involving the eyes is usually not for the feint hearted; and that is certainly the case here as while the murder scenes aren't particularly brutal; they are grisly enough and are sure to please. The film features plenty of red herrings; but the ending does come as a surprise and it's really well worked too. Mattei revs the sleaze factor up high and the film ends well. A good Bruno Mattei film is a rare thing; and therefore this film should be cherished. Be sure to give it a look if you can find a copy!

If you look at the majority of films from the Italian exploitation directors of the late seventies and early eighties, many of them worked within similar – if not identical genres. After Fulci's 'Zombi 2' was a major box office success, Umberto Lenzi (Nightmare City), Marino Girolami (Zombie Holocaust), Andrea Bianchi (Burial Ground) Claudio Fragasso (After Death) and Joe D'Amato (Erotic Nights of the Living Dead) all jumped on the bandwagon to helm their own gory genre-additions. The same could be said about Ruggero Deodato's Jungle Holocaust, which led to the production of movies like Cannibal Ferox (Umberto Lenzi), Mountain of the Cannibal God (Sergio Martino) and Antonio Margheriti's Cannibal Apocalypse. But still by far their biggest contribution to Horror cinema has been the Giallo, which to those that don't know is basically the Italian version of the American slasher movie – only the Giallo came first. You can blame Mario Bava. His 1963 and 1964 murder/mysteries (The Girl who knew too much and Blood and Black Lace) are in fact credited with launching the cycle. If you check through the filmographies of any of the Euro exploitation titans that were working throughout the years that followed, then you're sure to find a Giallo lurking in there somewhere.It came as a surprise then when I learned that Bruno Mattei (arguably the sleaziest filmmaker of them all – and the first to jump on the bandwagon)) - hadn't blessed the genre with his own contribution right up until 1994. Now I know that the Italians kept working with the slasher/giallo category long after the Americans had realised that the cash-cow had been well and truly milked; - but by 1994, I reckon that even cinema fans in New Guinea were aware that masked killers were truly a thing of the past. Perhaps that explains why Eyes without a Face (Gli Occhi Dentro - surprisingly NOT a remake of George Franju's classic of the same name)) has become such a tough little cookie to track down. Even the copy that I eventually found was coverless, subtitled in French and was almost unwatchable due to the poor quality. Artist Giovanni Dai (Monica Seller) comes under fire from the media when a masked maniac begins emulating the murders committed by the lead character in her comic Doctor Dark. It tells the tale of a murderous schizophrenic that spends his days working as a Pagan professor, but spends his nights murdering babysitters. The assassin then removes his victim's eyeballs and places broken glass over the bleeding sockets. Before long the slaughters begin getting closer and closer to Giovanni and her boyfriend and it's left up to the dedicated detective Callistrati (Anthony Zequila) and his squad to stop the psychopath before he finally reaches her… Eyes without a Face begins with a surprisingly engaging scene, which hints at the argument that violence in home entertainment has a huge effect on behaviour in the community. This is a popular debate that has stretched from books to cinema and more recently video games and it still rages on even today. "If they kill someone with a power drill, do they take it out on Black and Decker?" Giovanni asks sarcastically. I guess that it depends on your own personnel views whether you agree with that statement or maybe you look at it from a different perspective. Perhaps the biggest surprise of all is that this topic is being discussed by a character in a movie directed by Bruno Mattei; a filmmaker that has never been credited for showing intelligence in his works. In fact, this feature does a fair amount to disprove the fallacy that Mattei doesn't have a shred of talent in his body and is just an exploitive hack – something that his critics will always leap to acknowledge. Some of the photography is smartly planned and exciting, the score's brilliantly orchestrated, the gore's fairly restrained and he even manages to create a large amount of suspense in a number of the stalking scenes.The mystery is fairly well constructed and should keep you guessing up until the slightly over ambitious climax. There are also a few moments when Mattei unleashes a few of his trademarks. The first murder victim suffers a particularly graphic eye impalement, which brought back fond memories of Margit Evelyn Newton's infamous fate in Zombie Creeping Flesh. It doesn't take too long either for Monica Seller to rip off her clothes and straddle her boyfriend – another of Mattei's necessities. But that's all you'll get in the gore and nudity department, even if the other murders are hardly 'family viewing material'. The inspiration for the feature looks to have stemmed mainly from Umberto Lenzi's Eyeball; however the killer dresses in a black mask and fedora like a more familiar Giallo bogeymen. He also heavy breathes like an American 'slasher' - so it's obvious that Bruno had taken a dose of the genre's American counterparts before production.After a promising start the pace does huff and puff somewhat until the climax and a few more murders would have been nice. It's also a shame that this was yet another victim of abysmal dubbing for the English speaking market, which made the movie even tougher to appreciate. Even so, the net result is a fairly decent murder mystery that should push the right buttons for fans of the slasher/Giallo genre. It's only a shame it's as rare as a bus in the rain, because it may have done a fair bit to boost Mattei's debatable cinematic reputation. Give it a try if you can manage to track it down. You may even find that you're pleasantly surprised

This rare film by Italian sleaze director Bruno Mattei is not - as the English title "Eyes Without a Face" suggests - a remake of Georges Franju's all time horror classic "Les Yeux Sans Visage" (which, as every genre buff should know, inspired Jess Franco's "Les Prédateurs de la Nuit" in 1988, one of Franco's best). "Gli Occhi Dentro" is a thriller in best Giallo tradition and often reminds of the typical genre outings of the 1970s. And this is quite a surprise considering that Bruno Mattei is known for trashy horror and exploitation films, but hasn't made a Giallo before this one.A serial killer murders baby sitters and plugs their eyes out. The killings resemble crimes from the latest issue of a successful comic book series called "Doctor Dark" about a schizophrenic who is a renowned professor by day and a maniac killer at night. The artist of the comic series is a young woman, and obviously the killer tries to make her suffer for his crimes: she starts finding the plugged out eyes of the victims at her home. After half an hour of the film, it seems that the maniac is caught. But it doesn't take much time to find out that the man apprehended is not the real killer.The story certainly ain't that original. The actors surely aren't very good. And Bruno Mattei never was a great artist as a director. But all of his films - no matter how shabby - show certain style and atmosphere. And in "Gli Occhi Dentro", he really manages to develop suspense and thrills, and also to deliver enough convincing red herrings for a couple of genre outings. After a swift start and a really cool first half an hour, the film loses a bit of its pace. But Mattei keeps the viewer interested while the plot continues unfolding, and the last half hour culminates in a manic climax to make this undeniably low budgeted thriller big fun for every Giallo freak - and probably makes one sigh nostalgicly towards the 1970s, the Golden Age of Giallo films.Concerning the plot (which is perfectly coherent for Mattei and average Giallo standards), the pace and the thrills, "Gli Occhi Dentro" is probably the most watchable of all films Mattei directed. Some scenes, though, remind the viewer that Mattei is an old "sleazeball": e.g. the phony close-up of the plugging out of the first victim's eye and a rather unmotivated love scene just before the climax starts. Concerning the gore, Mattei doesn't deliver it over the top. Nevertheless there are some bloody scenes and the murders that aren't as graphic are still quite grisly. All in all, this is a surprisingly well crafted thriller that delivers good thrilling entertainment and doesn't deserve to be as hard to get as it is at the moment. Rating: 7 out of 10.