‘Eight Eyes’ Movie Review [Fantasia 2023]: Terror From Former Yugoslavia Goes Off the Rails
Photo from Fantasia International Film Festival
From Jeff Nelson
Horror regularly wanders into the terrors of the unknown, occasionally traveling into the xenophobic nature of unfamiliar landscapes while on vacation. Eli Roth did exactly that in 2005’s Hostel, where human suffering and death became a commodity. Austin Jennings’ Eight Eyes moves in a different direction, but it holds on tight to the fear of strangers in a place far from home.
Cass (Emily Sweet) and Gav (Brad Thomas) decide to take a trip through former Yugoslavia after hitting a wall in their marriage. A bizarre local man named Saint Peter (Bruno Veljanovski) offers to act as their tour guide around the surrounding areas, sightseeing beyond the tourist destinations. However, Cass remains weary of Saint Peter, who has a strange obsession with them.
Eight Eyes begins at a local wedding ceremony, where language and cultural barriers keep people at an arm’s distance from entirely understanding one another. However, this barrier only further catapults the couple into a looming sense of danger that haunts their interactions with the cloudy-eyed Saint Peter. Jennings displays a clear ability to draw tension out of how this ominous man draws Cass and Gav into his web.
There’s more to Eight Eyes than meets the eye, instilling a twist that sends this slice of horror in an entirely different direction. The execution screams of nostalgia and cheese, moving into territory that isn’t nearly as unsettling or engaging as the buildup. It’s packed with carnage, employing loads of gnarly practical effects.
Jennings further immerses the audience with a presentation shot on 16mm and Super 8 cameras with vintage fonts noting locations. However, the story unfolds in a contemporary setting, briefly entering a gaming café and using smartphones, breaking the film’s own visual immersion.
Eight Eyes is a throwback to exploitation cinema of the past with a supernatural spin, although it stumbles in its mystical revelations. Jennings captures the fear of traveling to unfamiliar territory and the horror locked behind closed doors with a protagonist willing to fight tooth and nail to survive the ordeal, but it lacks the blood-curdling terror of its inspirations.
Rating: 2/5
Eight Eyes played at Fantasia 2023 on August 4th, 2023.
