Behind Your Eyes and Digging Yourself a Hole: A Movie Review

*a screener of this film was provided by Gravitas Ventures.

**here be spoilers.

Director: Clint Lien.

Writer: Daniel Fanaberia.

Cast: Frida Farrell, Tom Sandoval and Daniel Fanaberia.

The Hollywood mediocrity machine seems to be influencing indie films as well. This is the case with Behind Your Eyes, an average indie thriller. Cliches abound. This titled was released on DVD by Osiris Entertainment March 20th and Behind Your Eyes has won the "Special Jury Prize" at the Las Vegas film Festival and "Best Feature" at the Canadian International Film Festival. However, the film failed to impress one reviewer here at 28DLA. Clint Lien's thriller struggles through the first thirty minutes. Mystery cannot really be created from lack of dialogue. Only in the finale does the picture show any legs; but, by this time, an opportunity to develop characters or to move the plot forward has been lost.

And thirty minutes of screen time is lost to formula. An attempt to build mystery is devised by not showing one abductor's motivations. This is exciting for all of five minutes, but the repetition of "why are you doing this?" quickly becomes tedious. Meanwhile, Steven (Tom Sandoval) Erika (Frida Farrell) remain tied up after an abudctor carjacks them at an isolated gas station. The kidnapper will stay mostly mute for the full first act. Once Erika escapes, events get a little more tense. Erika finds refuge at a neighbouring cabin. The respite is temporary, however. The residents at this second locale are religious fanatics who have a taste for blood and pretty brunettes. There are so many sinners to be murdered in film!

And the Father (Arthur Roberts) does much of the murdering: "fifty-three souls are buried in these hills." What happened to turning the other cheek? The Father has passed his skill for killing onto his homosexual son, but his progeny is also a source of humiliation for him. Thus themes of homosexuality, fanaticism and betrayal begin to emerge. The third theme is developed when Erika finally realizes that Steven is not the man of her dreams. He is more like a burgeoning Lucifer, waiting for his fall from grace. This point is really driven home when Steven shackles her to a sawhorse to be butchered. This reviewer senses a breakup coming. The other two themes have already been discussed and all three topics come together like a lukewarm pot of coffee.

There just is not enough fizzle here despite a ninja-like killer stalking about the early scenes. You get two guesses to figure out who is wearing the black pajamas. As stated earlier, the first act is ridiculous. Mark (Daniel Fanaberia), the abductor, does his best leering maniac routine. Yet, this character cannot bring out any real terror. His best attempt to humiliate Erika with a command to "dance!" creates for one of the unsexiest scenes in film history. Erika seems to wobble about while messing up her hair. Only Elaine from Seinfeld is a worse dancer from "The Little Kicks." This scene needed to be cut. Then, Mark's big torture scene with Steven involves a whipping with a belt. Since when does spanking equate to tension? The writer or director just could not push into unsettling territory in either of these two ridiculous scenes both of which occur in the Act 1.

In the film's defence, the tone does change to one of mild excitement in Act 3. At this point, the serial killing family has been revealed and the back and forth involving power and control is sometimes interesting. The gore and makeup effects increase and here, in the climax, first time director Clint Lien finally finds his legs. This is a little late in the game to be pushing the action forward. The pace should have been set at a higher tempo much earlier.

Behind Your Eyes is an average thriller that follows the usual Hollywood style of switching antagonists halfway into the film. The film is predictable and there are some serious issues with pacing. This reviewer would not whole-heartedly recommend this film. However, there might be a small audience out there who enjoy tales of a serial killing family. Unfortunately, they only begin to menace characters as the curtain drops.

Overall: 6 out of 10 (pacing issues, Act I is almost a complete waste of time, Act II is tepid but building a transition and Act III is an improvement, predictable, characters are not fully developed).

*this title was released on video-on-demand by Gravitas Ventures in March.

More details on this release are here:

Behind Your Eyes at Osiris Ent.

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Posted in: 2012,2012 release,dvd,dvd artwork,movie review,osiris entertainment