Eyes of the Werewolf (1999) — Triskaidekafiles

EYES OF THE WEREWOLF

WRITER: Tim Sullivan

DIRECTOR: Tim Sullivan

STARRING: Mark Sawyer as Rich Stevens

Stephanie Beaton as Sondra Gard

Jason Clark as Siodmak

Eric Mestressat as Kass

Deborah Huber as Rita Stevens

Tim Sullivan as Dr. Atwill

QUICK CUT: Following a horrible accident, a man has his eyes replaced in an innovative new procedure, and then he begins to see the world in a whole new way.

THE MORGUE

Rich - A scientist who played too much with chemicals. A loving husband, a good friend, but he is not the person to cross. Once he’s pushed too far, the fur starts to fly.

Dr. Atwill - A shady doctor who takes care of Rich’s surgery. He has no issue cutting corners and getting organs through whatever means necessary. The more illegal, the better, it seems.

Sondra - A nurse working for Atwill who falls instantly in love with Rich, for no particular reason. She seems aware of Atwill’s shenanigans, but looks the other way as long as people are being helped.

Andros - An odd man who lives in the woods that Rich encounters once his problems begin. He’s knowledgeable in the supernatural, and serves as a spiritual guide and friend.

Kass - The man who supplies the doctor with his body parts, and he has no issue hunting people for sport to get them. Kinda says it all right there.

When the moon hits your eyes like a big pizza pie, that's a werewolf.

TRISK ANALYSIS: Welcome back, Triskelions! The moon is full, and the wolves have begun to howl, as I turn my attention towards Eyes of the Werewolf. This is an odd bit of film I randomly came across, largely due to discovering the other movie on the two movie disc I found. But let's just see what's going on with this movie first...

The movie kicks right off with a group of hunters chasing after a werewoof, and you are instantly struck with the no budget of the movie; low quality recording, cheap effects for gunshots, if we're even that lucky, but at least they're trying!

After the creature takes out a hunter or three, in hilariously bloody and cheap fashion, the rest of them corner the pupper, shoot him, and slice off his head. With that done, their leader Kass says they are going to deliver it to a doctor for the eyes.

I love that they randomly killed a werewolf, while just collecting organs for the black market, and it wasn’t a werewolf hunt at all.

Hold on, hold on, I almost got it off you!

We next find ourselves in what is arguably a hospital, as a man with his eyes bandaged up is just waking, and meeting his nurse. Rich was in a lab accident that hilariously splashed acid into his face, so here we are with his eyes being replaced.

It's hilarious, because it cuts SO sharply from one line to the explosion, the sound effect is overblown, and it's just so perfectly cheap.

As the scene continues, it jarringly cuts after every line, to only a SLIGHTLY different view, like this was stitched together from 12 different takes, and it's very off putting.

There are two people talking in this scene, and none of them are on screen.

Time passes, presumably, and Rich wakes up from another nightmare reusing the flashback explosion. Fortunately, Nurse Sondra is there to comfort him.

And boy, does she ever comfort him, as she strips and we get an extended sex scene. Whoa now, that is a serious ethical violation.

Which seems like a good time for Rich to mention he's married. Oops. But Sondra points out that his wife hasn't been in once to see him, so how much in love can they be?

So the bandages get removed, and Rich heads home, to return to his boring married life of a research scientist.

But there's good news! Rita's heading out to meet some friends, and to make a long story short, Rich follows her, and discovers she's been hooking up with his best friend, Craig. So he's free and in the clear to be with Sondra!

So he shows up at Craig's, acting like he's there to catch up after his stay in the hospital, and Craig kinda stands in the way, until Rich asks, "aren't you going to let me in?" Dude, this is a werewoof movie, not a vampire flick.

He calls out for his wife, and Craig does his best to cover, but Rita has no time for this, and less fucks to give, so brazenly comes right out.

They have the shortest of fights, with Rich getting his ass kicked in one punch, so he leaves empty handed and bloodied lip.

Back at home while watching a werewolf movie, the moon comes out. Rich goes through his first transformation sequence, getting hairier and hairier. Ah, the grow up so fast.

Craig is chilling on the beach during what can charitably be called night, with the world's hugest moon behind him.

Well, no wonder it’s so bright out. Lookit the size of that moon!

Instead, the husband shows up, and kills his best friend in revenge for the affair and betrayal.

While Rich howls at the moon, a writer, whom we will later find out is named Siodmak, after the writer of the original Wolf Man movie in the 40s, witnesses the werewolf.

And he somehow is able to recognise it as Rich. Dude must be wearing his favourite shirt, or something.

The following morning, Rich wakes up far from home, and stumbles towards the nearest shack, where he meets Andros. The dude is nice enough to give Rich a spot to catch his breath and figure shit out.

Rich cleans up a bit, flashes back to remember what he has done, and stumbles back out to Andros' living room.

He tells Andros what he thinks he did, and the dude is taking all this very well, considering there is a guy with ripped clothes, covered in blood, and saying he may have killed someone.

But they hear the police, and Rich runs home. Go boy! Go on home! Where...he meets the police, to ask him a few questions about his dead friend, anyways.

He tells exactly what happened when he confronted Craig about Rita, and then the cop asks if he had a dog. Seems like the body was attacked by a large dog. Or...a wolf. And the cop is taking all this so very well. She acknowledges its weird, but is perfectly fine with it.

Once he's done answering questions and the cop leaves, Siodmak shows up to check on his friend, and ask some questions of his own.

He says he saw Rich on the beach, but that's absurd. But it gets absurdier when Siodmak says he didn't want to miss an opportunity to speak to a real, live werewolf. Again, everyone takes so much of this movie in stride.

Once Siodmak leaves, Rita shows up, and the pair have a confrontation over Rich talking to Sondra over the phone. Which takes a lotta balls on Rita's part. You know what I mean.

While they discuss their impending divorce, the moon comes out, and someone's monthly visitor makes itself known.

This is what happens when you overbreed your werewolves, people.

Following murdering his wife, the werewolf still isn't satisfied, and we literally get some poor girl who wanders into the movie for five seconds to get slaughtered in an alley.

Now, I can get behind the revenge killings. They're still wrong, but I can understand the reasonings. But this is some random person, with no connection to the plot, and is a straight up murder.

The next day, Andros returns from hanging out with the Power Rangers to find Rich on his lawn again, and the cop finds Rita's mutilated corpse in Rich's house.

Andros gives us a brief history of animal shapeshifting, and drops that it must be because of Rich's eyes that he's changing.

Meanwhile, Kass the organ procurer is packing up some more goodies for Doctor Atwill, and it is the most ridiculous situation of just piling every part into the same container, with no ice, just dumped in like LEGOs, which he then drops off.

Sure, let's just leave the various rotting body parts, not refrigerated, not even on ice, in an unsanitary, unsealed, regular tote, sitting here on the stoop, in the sun. This is fine.

Rich heads to the clinic to confront Atwill about his eyes, that they've passed on an unexpected infection...Lycanthropy!

Atwill isn't being this wolf nonsense, and to cap things off, says their probably just delusions. He calls in Kass to remove the disturbed patient, but Rich sees himself out.

While he tries to sneak out without getting captured, Rich meets up with Sondra and helps get him out of there.

“You want I should bring those organs inside while I’m looking for Rich?”

Sondra hides Rich in her place for a bit, but he knows sundown is coming, and wants to get out. But she points out there's plenty of time before then and...oh geeze.

This is a shockingly horny movie, folks. Yes, it's time for another lengthy sex scene. To be fair, there is only two, but they goooo ooooon.

Rich is spent after the vigorous exercise, and passes out on Sondra's couch, while she goes to do whatever.

He wakes up as the moon is rising, and quickly puts his clothes o...wait, they're just gonna get ripped in about five seconds, I wouldn't bother dude.

Rich rushes off as he wolfs out, in completely DIFFERENT clothes, and shoves Sondra out of the way as he escapes.

Pardon me, ma’am! Werewolf coming through!

The cop shows up to take Sondra's statement, and uh, she starts hitting on the victim, which again, ethics violation much?

Meanwhile, Rich tracks down Doctor Atwill, and eats him, for some pretty tenuous revenge over the whole eyes thing. But at least he's also obtaining organs illegally, so he's a criminal, and I can roll with it.

Following the murder of the doctor, Detective Justine is back to question Sondra about Rich. And hit on her some more.

Siodmak contacts Andros looking for Rich, and he's fortunately there already. The trio team up to go search Kass's house for proof of his illegal organ harvesting. Sure, why not.

They find some bloody knives, and body parts, and whatnot, just as Kass shows up. The trio beat feet into the forest while he approaches.

They clearly see Kass approaching across a large field, and somehow expect to NOT be noticed??

We get a lengthy chase through the woods and brushland, which ends up with Siodmak and Andros getting shot, and both dying. Andros keeps going for a bit, but he’s not long for this movie.

Kass brings Siodmort back to his home to hack up the corpse, and Rich is wandering outside, with his clothes somehow changed, and somehow already ripped. Editing? Continuity? What are these things of which you speak?

And then suddenly, the moon fades into view and THAT IS NOT HOW THE MOON WORKS! THIS IS A VIOLATION OF SPACE AND PHYSICS.

The werewoof hunts down Kass, and rips his head off, avenging his friends. And he sits there and waits while Andros dies in his paws.

Elsewhere, Detective Justine shows back up once more to check on Sondra and asks if she has a chance with her. Geeze, she said she has a boyfriend! Sure, he sometimes needs to go for walkies, but she is spoken for!

Richwoof busts into the house, kicking the doors in like he's Jason Voorhees, and the cop does what the cops does, and pulls her gun.

He smacks the gun out of her hands, and is ready to attack, when Sondra steps between them, pleading for Justine's life.

Rich, realising what a monster he's become, decides to OH HOLY SHIT HE'S TEARING HIS OWN EYES OUT WHAT THE SQUAWK I WAS NOT EXPECTING THAT.

Okay, major points for a strong, surprising finish, that actually kinda impresses me, down to the effects.

Okay. He is tearing his own eyes out. Can you spot the problem?

The now eyeless werewoof tosses them into the fire, so no one else can be a victim, or just because fire is always good to make a point, and then stumbles out the door.

Dude takes his sweet time to wander far away, with the two women following him, before he finally has the decency to pass out from MASSIVE blood loss, and let this movie finally come to a close.

Well, not before some awkward comforting of Sondra by Justine, and some pretty cool gore makeup on Rich's face where his eyes used to be.

TRISK ASSESSMENT

Video: It doesn’t look great, it’s definitely a rip from a VHS tape if I had to guess, but it’s solid, and could definitely look a lot worse.

Audio: Pretty okay

Sound Bite: "I really need to renew my subscription to the daily papers. CNN just doesn't have enough good werewolf stories on."

Body Count: This definitely has a very respectable body count to keep things rolling.

1 - Just short of two minutes in, and a hunter gets pounced on by the Werewoof.

2 - Another hunter gets his face clawed off.

3 - And then the werewoof himself is shot and beheaded.

4 - Rich kills Craig on the beach

5 - Rita gets killed by the werewoof

6 - And then he kills some rando.

7 - Richwoof eats Doctor Atwill.

8 - Organ thief shoots Siodmak dead

9 - Andros gets shot next

10 - And then Rickwoof tears off Kass's head.

11 - Rich dies after TEARING OUT HIS EYES

Best Corpse: We get some great glimpses of Rita’s mauled body, but Kass wins out just barely, because it’s a good head removal, and very deserving. And the only reason Rich himself doesn’t get it is because his corpse is human, and the eye tearing is a significantly separate event. It’s my site, and I make the rules, I can ignore them at will.

Blood Type - A: Lots of blood in this one! And that shot of the werewoof tearing his eyes out is just a taste. Almost all of it is like that. The rest is kinda silly, like the wolf playing patty cake with a hunter’s face, but it’s still very bloody.

Sex Appeal: Sondra spends a significant amount of time in this movie naked.

Drink Up! Every time Rich woofs out.

Movie Review: Okay, I am shocked by what I am about to say, but…I actually REALLY liked this movie. Yeah, it’s cheap, it’s camp, it’s got some ridiculous moments, moments that don’t make sense, but my god, these people genuinely tried to make a movie. This is a bad movie, to be sure, but it’s bad, mostly, because it just doesn’t have the money to pull things off as well as they could. The plot is great. It’s coherent. It’s actually a VERY creative idea, and yes, we’ve seen it before with stuff like Body Parts, but this is with a WEREWOLF. And these people really did try. They’re actually trying to act. They’re pouring their hearts into the effects. And while it’s not a home run, if you take it for the no budget movie it is, and don’t want it to be more than that, it’s very, very good. If I have one complaint, it is how much padding those sex scenes shove into the run time. Four out of five torn out eyeballs.

Entertainment Value: There is definitely some weird moments. The acting is camp at times. The whole side track with Andros and Siodmak is very odd. They add a little to the plot, they’re nods to other movies, but they are just kinda there. But very entertaining. The kills are fun, and motivated, and gory. And being a pretty decent story, it actually gives it room to have a few fun, entertaining, silly moments to laugh at that are both with and at the movie. Four out of five plastic totes.

It might be because I’ve had such a long string of weird bad movies that were boring over this entire summer (With a few gems, to be fair!), but this was a genuine, delightful surprise.