EVIL EYE

Directed by Mario Siciliano. 1975. Italy, Mexico.

The wealthy and well-chiseled Peter has been having a rough time of it lately. In between hosting orgies at his expensive estate and having casual sex with his lovely arm candy, Tanya, Peter’s been having terrible recurring dreams, splitting headaches, and the occasional bout of uncontrollable homicidal urges. He meets a socialite named Yvonne, who claims to have dreamed of him one night, even receiving an unearthly warning about her death at his hands. She shakes all of this off, of course, and why wouldn’t she? Peter is the protagonist of an Italian horror film, after all, and as such, he is irresistible to every single woman who lays eyes on him.

Unfortunately, poor Yvonne should have listened to that horrible premonition. Just when things are getting a little gropey between them at the estate, Peter is suddenly struck by terrible visions. Then, strange things begin to happen. A statue in the room begins to move. A window blows open. A thunderstorm suddenly erupts. He turns, like a man possessed, and strangles the life out of poor Yvonne. Peter then wakes up in his own bed, unable to remember the details of the previous night. He’ll soon receive a phone call from a mysterious man who tells him to lower his blinds the next time he kills a woman.

Troubled by his loss of memory, Peter turns to Doctor Stone and his lovely assistant, Sarah, neither of whom has answers for his worsening condition. A short time later, Peter’s car breaks down outside a random house, but the married couple who come to his aid seem to know him. In fact, the wife claims to know him, shall we say, intimately. Again, Peter is at a loss, both to remember and to control his murderous urges. Just like before, odd, supernatural things begin happening, and once again, Peter commits murder, this time a double homicide. In the morning, Peter cannot remember anything he did the night before.

Peter returns to Dr. Stone and Sarah for help, allowing himself to be committed for treatment. Peter and Sarah begin a predictable and highly unethical sexual relationship. One dead body and a massive betrayal later, Peter and Sarah end up retreating to the mountains, where Sarah plans to help her lover overcome his problems one way or another. But is Peter really a psychopath, or is he merely a conduit for an evil, bloodthirsty spirit?

Oh shit, I forgot the cop! While all of this is going on, Detective Ranieri has been hot on Peter’s trail, uncovering every body left behind. He’s been making slow and steady progress, although the closer he gets to catching Peter, the more he begins to experience strange, almost otherworldly events. The Detective’s wife has given him a protective amulet. Maybe, she casually says, the murders are being caused by evil spirits. Is that why Peter’s madness seems to be contagious, infecting the Detective the closer he gets? Ranieri begins seeing things as high-pitched noises fill his head and dogs bark at him. Is he, too, a conduit, a man possessed, or does all of this have a more earthy answer?

I’ve seen many people over the years refer to Mario Siciliano’s 1975 headfucky slice of Eurotrash, EVIL EYE, as a giallo. It absolutely isn’t. Gialli, for all their flirtations with supernaturalism, are rooted in traditional murder mystery tropes. There are no ghostly hounds in The Hounds of the Baskervilles or specters in The Murder of Roger Ackroyd. The villains and culprits are flesh and blood. After all, classic mystery novels were rooted in deduction, scrutiny, and logic, none of which hold sway in the lands of ghosts and phantoms.

No, EVIL EYE is no giallo. Rather, it was yet another cash-in quickie released in the wake of THE EXORCIST. Retitled BEYOND THE EXORCISM for Spanish-language markets, EVIL EYE is undoubtedly a possession movie. I don’t even think the loopiest of giallo third-act revelations could make it otherwise. The first time I saw the film, I paid extremely close attention to Dr. Stone, to Sarah, to Peter’s butler and his friend, Robbie, trying desperately to figure out where the film would inevitably cut back to in a last-minute flashback, that “a-ha!” moment when you realize what was really going on this whole time.

Much of that expectation was formed not by this film, but by the films of Emilio Miraglia, in particular, his gonzo Gothic-tinged giallo, THE NIGHT EVELYN CAME OUT OF THE GRAVE. The resemblances between the two films are uncanny at times. It certainly doesn’t help that both films star Anthony Steffen, have potentially murderous protagonists under severe mental strain, and feel like giallo-inspired haunted house rides. But while Miraglia’s film stops itself from falling down the long staircase of the supernatural, Siciliano throws himself headlong down it.

EVIL EYE leaves the realm of the giallo for the land of the spooky ghost show, leaving all semblance of rationality and logic behind. Bottles explode, cigarette butts swirl in an ashtray, gurneys spin uncontrollably, morgue doors swing open, a man pukes up a frog for some goddamn reason, a ghostly specter lures our haggard Detective into a potential deathtrap, and everyone’s outfits somehow match the furniture. OK, that one is a bit of a joke, but only barely. The film eschews the normal vibrant sights and sounds of the giallo for the more shadowed, drab aesthetics of the horror film. There are no elaborate set-pieces, fisticuffs, or high-energy chases. The closest we get to delightful deviancy, the hallmark of any good giallo, is the world’s most safe-for-work orgy. Even the incredible Stelvio Cipriani score can’t get this film out of first gear.

Too many recycled scenes, too many repeated sequences of headaches, visions, slowly clenching fists, too many random cutaways to contextless surrealist images, too many questions, and too few answers. The film doesn’t even have a proper ending. It simply ends. There is no closure or explanation, just a car tumbling down a cliff. Despite telling a single story, the film feels like it is comprised of disparate parts. The cop’s struggle with his growing insanity feels disconnected from his search for a murderer, which feels disconnected from Peter’s struggles to overcome his malady, which feels disconnected from his love affair with Sarah. Nothing holds together. It’s like empty cans in a washing machine. Yeah, it’s doing something, sure, but mostly it’s just making noise.