Another benchmark French horror classic, Eyes Without a Face tells a story about a deranged doctor determined to fix his daughter’s face by any means necessary.

I’m always scrambling to hammer down some of the main things I take away from movies within minutes after they end. For Eyes Without a Face the most important thing to note is that Curb Your Enthusiasm uses the same theme song. There’s a photo set in the film of the girls body rejecting her new face and by day 20 I was almost positive we’d be looking at Larry David in a blond wig screaming in horror. Holy shit that wasn’t that funny *starts sweating*.

The film is an incredible feat for 1960 and still holds up well today. It almost ages like a dark beer where it’s not necessarily better or worse now, but different. The shock and disgust that audiences felt at its original release when the doctor slices into his victims were genuine reactions to visuals that modern horror fans are now jaded to. The reason why this movie still very relevant now is because despite some of the surgical scenes being uncharacteristically graphic for 1960, this is in no way a movie centered around carnage and mutilation. The Doctor being the villain in this movie is driven by desperation to fix his daughter out of love. The scariest part of his endeavors is watching him sacrifice his sanity as his crimes in succession steadily push him past the point of no return, only to realize his efforts might be for nothing.

In the end, this to me is a film about sacrifice and the value of beauty. Like many French horror movies, Georges Franju forgoes a fleshed out story to provide us with an atmospheric, moody film. Everyone will have their own personal preference in horrors but while details often fade from movies I haven’t seen in years, the feel of them doesn’t.

8/10

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