4/5 BEAUTY IS ONLY SKIN DEEP
  by Robin Simmons (Palm Springs area, CA United States)
"EYES WITHOUT A FACE" (1959)

George Franju's black and white French classic (aka LES YEUX SANS VISAGE) has influenced numerous films. Secluded in the French countryside, a brilliant, obsessive doctor attempts a radical surgery that could restore his beloved daughter's once-beautiful face, but at a horrifying price. Stunned audiences around the world were shocked at the bold, yet lyrical imagery.

The Criterion disc also includes "BLOOD OF THE BEASTS," Franju's graphic but beautiful 1949 short documentary about Paris slaughterhouses. R, widescreen, 95 minutes)

3/5 A masterpiece?
  by Jessica Valli (PITTSFIELD, MA United States)
I'm not sure if I would call this one a masterpiece. Than again I thought peeping Tom was hilarious. Anyway I watched this movie because it was free and I like supenseful, horror movies. I'm not that into that much gore. So I gave it a shot. It was alright. The musical score was incrediably creepy. That scarred me the most; it's a carnavial theme. I hate clowns!! Anyway the ending was haunting regardless of what some other people say. The daughter to me is the most creepy not because of the disfigurement but of how she walks around the house like a ghost. Anyway it's a short film and it beats boredom.

5/5 Some required viewing for any classic/foreign/horror cinema buff!
  by Tracy Piland
Chilling and Creepy Hitchcock like movie This film is incredible. So chilling and creepy on the most subdued levels. Shot amazily well. A father so passionate about saving his daughters looks it becomes an obession. Christiane played by Edith Scob, you can feel her pain through the lifeless mask she wears to cover her scars. I highly recommend this movie.

5/5 Amazingly Complex
  by P. Chacon
If you are looking for something that is going to make you jump then don't bother with this movie. It is a little slow, but enthralling. The mask is eerie and haunting. If you pay attention closely in the movie there are paintings in the movie symbolizing what she is like. (The daughter with doves, and then another painting with her wearing a mask holding a doll wearing a mask)

You can also further look into the movie how the father is trying to contain the daughter and make her beautiful throughout the whole movie, and then in the end... things turn around for the worse. It is really something you have to watch more than once to take in fully.

It is truely amazing and a masterpiece.

3/5 A Horror Movie without Any Horror
  by Bryan Cassiday (Los Angeles, CA)
Fete of Death
This is one of the dullest horror movies I've ever seen--almost as dull as "Carnival of Souls." It was only with great effort on my part that I could keep my eyes open throughout it. Each scene seems prolonged unnecessarily to the point of tedium.

The story, about a doctor trying to save his wife's ruined face with skin grafts that he surgically removes from beautiful women that he imprisons is predictable and offers no suprises. Jess Franco did virtually the same story with more scares in it in "The Awful Dr. Orloff." Granted, "Orloff," not a great movie by any means, came out a year after "Eyes without a Face," but even if it is a rip-off, it has more creepy action to it than the listless "Eyes."

"Eyes" is structurally sound (save for the annoyingly long, ennui-inducing scenes) and the plot is well constructed, and for those reasons I'll give it three stars, but if you're looking for chills or suspense, this isn't the movie for you. It didn't find its way to my subconscious, like an effective horror movie should.

I don't want to give away the ending, but the liberated dogs provide the most excitement in the final scenes of "Eyes without a Face."

--Bryan Cassiday, author of "Fete of Death"