Director: Georges Franju
Year: 1960
Country: France/Italy
Alternate Titles: Les yeux sans visage
Genre: Mad Doctor
Plot:
After his daughter has been found, a surgeon's efforts to fix her mangled features lead to a series of kidnappings to experiment on the gathered victims in providing her a new face and bring the police into the investigation in order to stop his delusional ideas.
Review:
This one is a slightly overrated classic. Among the few enjoyable aspects here is the rather free and easy-going nature of the themes, which makes for a wholly decent enough time. The fact that this one has a really spectacular surgery scene is a big part of that in the film, being long, graphic, brutal, and very detailed as it features the pre-surgery, the actual cutting into the skin, and several aftermath shots of the bloody face. This is a really strong sequence, and that it's so long and features a lot more graphic moments, even goes as far as it does in the aftermath shots, than most other surgery scenes at the time is something to be applauded.
The few times where it's shown, the mask actually gets a little unsettling at times, which is quite shocking with the angular, slick features and completely deadened face, making it really disturbing while getting some chilling moments from the mask. As well, there are pretty tense and chilling stalking scenes throughout here where they happen upon the victims in the middle of town, while the last good factor is the finale, where she lets the dogs loose in the facility, where they overrun the others left there, which are the only good points of the film.
This one here doesn't have very many flaws, but they are pretty big ones. A really big problem here is the fact that the film doesn't feel like a horror film at all, as, despite the surgery scene, this one provides nothing else for horror fans. Instead, this plays out as a traditional drama about a doctor's struggle to get his daughter to approve of the realities of the surgery while attempting to hide this factor from his everyday professional abilities, rather than a horror film, as there's a huge series of scenes that basically aren't even played out to be chilling. That is a major problem, since it never really tries to be scary or chilling for most of the film, and that is especially damaging, as if the film fails for the fact that it never tries to begin with, as instead this plays out like a completely different genre rather than what it really should.
This is reflected in the next flaw, the film's terribly slow pacing, as this one drags on forever. It takes longer to get started, has a penchant for going off into plots that mean nothing, and doesn't seem concerned with much going on, rather than opting for conversations stating the obvious. Moreover, none of what's left to concentrate on seems important anyway because there's so little urgency in anything that it really feels like no one cares, so it falls onto the viewer as well. These two big flaws are incredibly damaging to the film and really make it seem overrated.
Overview: **.5/5
Overrated but still watchable as a classic era genre effort, there's enough to like here that it's not a complete waste, but it does serve as a bit more problematic than expected, which leaves this slightly problematic. Those with an interest in this era of genre fare or who aren't bothered by the flaws will have a lot to like here, while those turned off by these factors will want to heed caution.
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