Madness (Eyes Without a Face) 1993

Madness (1993)

Cinema de Bizarre

DVD-R

Madness aka Eyes Without a Face (Gli occhi dentro) is a unusual crime thriller by director Bruno Mattei. It was his first attempt at making a giallo film and is surprisingly effective. It is very hard to find a copy and the edition from Cinema de Bizarre is in English, full screen and of quite reasonable quality. It is the best print available of this extremely rare film and it is good to have it available.

Giovanna, a up-and-coming young comic book artist has created a unique new character Dr.Dark. By day Dark is a professor teaching pagan religions but by night he is a brutal serial killer who copies the ancient methods of the Egyptians. The comics have developed a cult following and achieved notoriety in the media, especially considering that there is a real killer on the loose who seems to be acting out the killings.

Just like in the comics a killer dressed in black with a zippered mask is haunting the streets killing baby-sitters. He visits the ancient Egypt funeral rites on the living by gouging out their eyes, pushing metal prongs through their noses into their brains and leaving the bodies with pieces on glass over the empty eye sockets.

The media pressure against the Dr.Dark comics mount and Giovanna fights against any attempt at censorship arguing for freedom of expression and against any connection between literature and those who may pervert it for their own pathology. I especially like her response when the media demands she take responsibility for the killings her comic book has supposedly triggered.

"If they kill someone with a power drill, do they take it out on Black and Decker?"

As the bodies mount-up the police are confused by the twists and turns in the case, it seems the killer is hunting the author leaving strange messages on her phone and perverse little gifts, but perhaps things are not quite as they seem.

This is an impressive giallo with an excellent plot, it has lots of twists and turns including a great anti-climax in the middle when you think the police have caught the killer but obviously they have not. There are lots of flawed characters, all of which could easily be the culprit. Madness is bloody; action packed and certainly keeps your attention.

The dialogue is a bit stilted and the acting a bit overwrought but this just adds to the intensity of the tale. Mattei’s works can be a bit hit and miss but this is really quite a superb thriller which will keep you enthralled right to the very end.

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This review will appear in Volume 3 No.2 of the digital and print edition of Synergy Magazine.

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