This so-called giallo (rather late entry into the genre if this was filmed in 1994) tells the story of a masked murderer who is attacking women and a police detective trying to find out the killer's identity before a beautiful comic book illustrator becomes the next victim."Madness" AKA "Eyes Without A Face (which comes up in the closing credits), is a pretty sloppily put together piece of cinema. Although it's currently extremely hard to track down a copy (there is no current VHS or DVD release, bootleg copies only, it seems), it doesn't reward anyone who goes to the trouble of finding it. The plot is pretty thin, the killer seems to be copying a character in a comic book called "Doctor Dark" and the pretty young illustrator of the comic seems to be the focus of the killer's attention. First of all you need to know that the pretty young illustrator is played by one of the worst actresses in any Italian giallo I have ever seen. Together with they guy who plays her boyfriend, she pretty much drags the whole story into the gutter. There are unfortunately several scenes where she is called upon to scream and panic or freak out in terror after nightmares, and she completely ruins it every time. In scenes where she is in hysterics and being "calmed" by her boyfriend, the pair of them look as though they are barking at each other like hyperactive dogs. The English dub is terrible, but for once that isn't to blame for this poor display of ham acting.One factor that might have saved the film is the grisly murders, as the murderer's methods are quite shocking: first he incapacitates his victims with a hypodermic syringe to the neck, then gouges out their eyes with some kind of extended fork, then he sticks broken glass into the empty sockets, and finally he shoves the fork up their nose to impale their brain. He then makes off with the eyeballs! This all sounds awesome/disgusting, but the presentation of it on screen is very disappointing. It only really happens once, and this is in the first 10 minutes of the film. The shots of the dead victim's mutilated face look quite gruesome, but the actual murder itself is very badly filmed - and no other deaths in the film are shown in any detail at all.So what we do have is a central cast of really bad actors (the slimy police inspectors are as bad as the central couple), and bunch of poor special effects with perhaps the one good shot of the first victim (oh and while she's alive she can't act either), and a "whodunnit" plot which to be fair does deliver a twist ending that you might not guess. But there's very little to enjoy. The central idea of the killer copying a comic book character might have gone somewhere but even that is wasted - the few times that any illustrations from the comic are seen on camera reveals some really pitifully poor drawings that would never make publication let alone be a "sensation".It's disappointing to search for a rare film and then be let down like I was by "Madness" - and to think people are reviewing it as one of Bruno Mattei's better films...oh dear

Bruno Mattei is a director famous for making his own versions of popular films; so you would certainly be forgiven for thinking that Eyes Without a Face is a remake of the Georges Franju classic of the same title; and probably quite shocked to learn that it isn't! You're likely to be even more shocked to find out that this is actually a good film! The Giallo genre was most popular in the early seventies; although Mattei didn't start making films in the mid seventies, and by then the likes of exploitation, zombie films and cannibals had taken over as the most popular Italian export. However, the fact that the Giallo had been and gone by 1994 didn't stop Mattei from making one anyway. The plot focuses on a serial killer who is murdering people by way of plucking their eyes out; a modus operandi obviously inspired by a comic book known as 'Doctor Dark'. A few girls get killed and it would appear that the creator of the comic book, a beautiful young woman named Giovanna Dei, will be the killer's next victim when the disembodied eyes start turning up at her place...Despite being made in 1994; this is every bit the classic styled Giallo, from the confusing plot to thin characters and brutal murder scenes. The film starts with a well worked scene at a go-cart race and the first half moves quite quickly and Mattei manages to keep up the suspense, which is definitely to the film's credit. However, the middle part of the film begins to get a bit tepid; but luckily things are recovered by the end. The film stars Monica Seller, in one of only three film appearances, and it's a shame she didn't work more often because she's very cute. Any violence involving the eyes is usually not for the feint hearted; and that is certainly the case here as while the murder scenes aren't particularly brutal; they are grisly enough and are sure to please. The film features plenty of red herrings; but the ending does come as a surprise and it's really well worked too. Mattei revs the sleaze factor up high and the film ends well. A good Bruno Mattei film is a rare thing; and therefore this film should be cherished. Be sure to give it a look if you can find a copy!

If you look at the majority of films from the Italian exploitation directors of the late seventies and early eighties, many of them worked within similar – if not identical genres. After Fulci's 'Zombi 2' was a major box office success, Umberto Lenzi (Nightmare City), Marino Girolami (Zombie Holocaust), Andrea Bianchi (Burial Ground) Claudio Fragasso (After Death) and Joe D'Amato (Erotic Nights of the Living Dead) all jumped on the bandwagon to helm their own gory genre-additions. The same could be said about Ruggero Deodato's Jungle Holocaust, which led to the production of movies like Cannibal Ferox (Umberto Lenzi), Mountain of the Cannibal God (Sergio Martino) and Antonio Margheriti's Cannibal Apocalypse. But still by far their biggest contribution to Horror cinema has been the Giallo, which to those that don't know is basically the Italian version of the American slasher movie – only the Giallo came first. You can blame Mario Bava. His 1963 and 1964 murder/mysteries (The Girl who knew too much and Blood and Black Lace) are in fact credited with launching the cycle. If you check through the filmographies of any of the Euro exploitation titans that were working throughout the years that followed, then you're sure to find a Giallo lurking in there somewhere.It came as a surprise then when I learned that Bruno Mattei (arguably the sleaziest filmmaker of them all – and the first to jump on the bandwagon)) - hadn't blessed the genre with his own contribution right up until 1994. Now I know that the Italians kept working with the slasher/giallo category long after the Americans had realised that the cash-cow had been well and truly milked; - but by 1994, I reckon that even cinema fans in New Guinea were aware that masked killers were truly a thing of the past. Perhaps that explains why Eyes without a Face (Gli Occhi Dentro - surprisingly NOT a remake of George Franju's classic of the same name)) has become such a tough little cookie to track down. Even the copy that I eventually found was coverless, subtitled in French and was almost unwatchable due to the poor quality. Artist Giovanni Dai (Monica Seller) comes under fire from the media when a masked maniac begins emulating the murders committed by the lead character in her comic Doctor Dark. It tells the tale of a murderous schizophrenic that spends his days working as a Pagan professor, but spends his nights murdering babysitters. The assassin then removes his victim's eyeballs and places broken glass over the bleeding sockets. Before long the slaughters begin getting closer and closer to Giovanni and her boyfriend and it's left up to the dedicated detective Callistrati (Anthony Zequila) and his squad to stop the psychopath before he finally reaches her… Eyes without a Face begins with a surprisingly engaging scene, which hints at the argument that violence in home entertainment has a huge effect on behaviour in the community. This is a popular debate that has stretched from books to cinema and more recently video games and it still rages on even today. "If they kill someone with a power drill, do they take it out on Black and Decker?" Giovanni asks sarcastically. I guess that it depends on your own personnel views whether you agree with that statement or maybe you look at it from a different perspective. Perhaps the biggest surprise of all is that this topic is being discussed by a character in a movie directed by Bruno Mattei; a filmmaker that has never been credited for showing intelligence in his works. In fact, this feature does a fair amount to disprove the fallacy that Mattei doesn't have a shred of talent in his body and is just an exploitive hack – something that his critics will always leap to acknowledge. Some of the photography is smartly planned and exciting, the score's brilliantly orchestrated, the gore's fairly restrained and he even manages to create a large amount of suspense in a number of the stalking scenes.The mystery is fairly well constructed and should keep you guessing up until the slightly over ambitious climax. There are also a few moments when Mattei unleashes a few of his trademarks. The first murder victim suffers a particularly graphic eye impalement, which brought back fond memories of Margit Evelyn Newton's infamous fate in Zombie Creeping Flesh. It doesn't take too long either for Monica Seller to rip off her clothes and straddle her boyfriend – another of Mattei's necessities. But that's all you'll get in the gore and nudity department, even if the other murders are hardly 'family viewing material'. The inspiration for the feature looks to have stemmed mainly from Umberto Lenzi's Eyeball; however the killer dresses in a black mask and fedora like a more familiar Giallo bogeymen. He also heavy breathes like an American 'slasher' - so it's obvious that Bruno had taken a dose of the genre's American counterparts before production.After a promising start the pace does huff and puff somewhat until the climax and a few more murders would have been nice. It's also a shame that this was yet another victim of abysmal dubbing for the English speaking market, which made the movie even tougher to appreciate. Even so, the net result is a fairly decent murder mystery that should push the right buttons for fans of the slasher/Giallo genre. It's only a shame it's as rare as a bus in the rain, because it may have done a fair bit to boost Mattei's debatable cinematic reputation. Give it a try if you can manage to track it down. You may even find that you're pleasantly surprised

This rare film by Italian sleaze director Bruno Mattei is not - as the English title "Eyes Without a Face" suggests - a remake of Georges Franju's all time horror classic "Les Yeux Sans Visage" (which, as every genre buff should know, inspired Jess Franco's "Les Prédateurs de la Nuit" in 1988, one of Franco's best). "Gli Occhi Dentro" is a thriller in best Giallo tradition and often reminds of the typical genre outings of the 1970s. And this is quite a surprise considering that Bruno Mattei is known for trashy horror and exploitation films, but hasn't made a Giallo before this one.A serial killer murders baby sitters and plugs their eyes out. The killings resemble crimes from the latest issue of a successful comic book series called "Doctor Dark" about a schizophrenic who is a renowned professor by day and a maniac killer at night. The artist of the comic series is a young woman, and obviously the killer tries to make her suffer for his crimes: she starts finding the plugged out eyes of the victims at her home. After half an hour of the film, it seems that the maniac is caught. But it doesn't take much time to find out that the man apprehended is not the real killer.The story certainly ain't that original. The actors surely aren't very good. And Bruno Mattei never was a great artist as a director. But all of his films - no matter how shabby - show certain style and atmosphere. And in "Gli Occhi Dentro", he really manages to develop suspense and thrills, and also to deliver enough convincing red herrings for a couple of genre outings. After a swift start and a really cool first half an hour, the film loses a bit of its pace. But Mattei keeps the viewer interested while the plot continues unfolding, and the last half hour culminates in a manic climax to make this undeniably low budgeted thriller big fun for every Giallo freak - and probably makes one sigh nostalgicly towards the 1970s, the Golden Age of Giallo films.Concerning the plot (which is perfectly coherent for Mattei and average Giallo standards), the pace and the thrills, "Gli Occhi Dentro" is probably the most watchable of all films Mattei directed. Some scenes, though, remind the viewer that Mattei is an old "sleazeball": e.g. the phony close-up of the plugging out of the first victim's eye and a rather unmotivated love scene just before the climax starts. Concerning the gore, Mattei doesn't deliver it over the top. Nevertheless there are some bloody scenes and the murders that aren't as graphic are still quite grisly. All in all, this is a surprisingly well crafted thriller that delivers good thrilling entertainment and doesn't deserve to be as hard to get as it is at the moment. Rating: 7 out of 10.