There are a lot of things that can go wrong in cinema, even in cases where the persons initially involved are very talented and the basic story ideas show a lot of great potential. "Eyes of Laura Mars" is the perfect example to state this. The supernatural premise, penned down by no less than John Carpenter ("Halloween", "Assault on Precinct 13"), is undoubtedly intriguing and rich on artistic opportunities, yet due to an incredible amount of production difficulties and constant re-writings of the script, it ended up being a hopelessly muddled and disappointing thriller. Carpenter gave up when he saw that his original idea got slowly turned into a gimmicky mystery, revolving more on the glossy charisma of its lead actress than on the actual trump of film: a series of bizarre murders in the world of professional photography. Faye Dunaway stars as the female version of the controversial real-life "artist" Helmut Newton and exhibits shock-provoking photos that portray death, mayhem and prostitution in New York City. Suddenly and for reasons that remain unexplained, she can witness with her own eyes how a gloved serial killer brutally stabs her closest friends & co-workers to death. Laura's descriptions appear identical to how the murders were committed and thus the handsome Detective John Neville personally takes pity on her, as she unquestionably will become the killer's main target. Experienced horror/thriller fans that are slightly familiar with Italian cinema will immediately spot the similarities between this film and the typical gialli (= violent Italian murder-mysteries) of 70's and early 80's. "Eyes of Laura Mars" contains multiple trademarks of the giallo, but sadly lacks the stuff that makes them so fantastic, namely bloody gore and sleaze. Style & substance characteristics are definitely well presented: bizarre title, far fetched psychic sub plots, implausible red herrings left and right, an insane denouement, silly music
You almost get the impression that producer Jon Peters WANTED to make an American attempt to giallo but eventually didn't had the courage to make it as demented as it should be! "Eyes of Laura Mars" is a tedious and slow-paced film, with cast-members that perform below their normal skill and a director that didn't really knew what he was doing. And then still we have to be grateful that Barbra Streisand didn't play the lead role, as it was intended before Dunaway took over
Review of Eyes of Laura Mars
