Customer Reviews

Eyes of Fire [VHS]

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This unjustly overlooked movie, the first directed by Avery Crounse, ranks along with Pumpkinhead as one of the best examples of dark fantasy rooted in pure American culture. A period piece, it's set in the mid-18th century in the American colonies, before there was a United States, and is the tale of settlers encountering the supernatural in the form of a previously unexplored forest's resident evil spirit.

Narrated by one of the two young survivors of the weird encounter, it starts with the two being interrogated by the equivalent of district militia regarding the disappearance of their fellow settlers. The story begins with adultery committed by a minister, somewhat hammily played by Dennis Lipscomb, and a settler's wife, resulting in the cuckolded husband taking his children off into the forest where they meet up with a strange girl who shows them much they never knew before about the ways of the land.

Crounse gets his setting just right and also does a great job fusing the real with the fantastic--not always an easy thing to do. One of the absolutely critical ingredients in any fantasy film--whether high fantasy, sword and sorcery, dark fantasy or horror--is atmosphere, and in that this movie excels. The brooding forest scenes are superb, making the viewer feel that at any moment the trees could come alive and snatch you up right from where you're standing.

Aside from Lipscomb, the other actors are excellent. The momentum of the story is escape from a known evil to an unknown evil and that drives the movie to its strong finish.

Highly recommended.

Eyes of Fire is about a small group of colonists in 1750 who set off on their own into Shawnee territory after an adulterous scandal. There they settle in a deserted, shunned valley-and soon learn why it is shunned:a demonic spirit or forest witch resides there. This force begins to attack and torment them. The only ones who suspect what is going on are the father of the narrator, an eccentric loner well versed in Indian lore, and a supposedly crazy girl, Mea, who has unusual powers and isn't what she seems. Things only get worse after the settlers find and take in a small native girl. They construe her to be a peace offering, but Mea realizes that she is really a forest demon....I won't give the rest away.
It is a very interesting, absorbing, different film, with a number of unsettling effects, such as the appearance of the forest witch, covered with leaves and dirt and with glowing eyes, able to sink into the earth from which he came. It easily blows the much-ballyhooed Blair Witch Project out of the water. It is certainly not a slasher film. I was never the least bit bored with it, but those looking for tons of dramatic and bloody deaths and such might want to look elsewhere. It is a very rich, detailed story with the air of an actual legend or folk tale. It will be a shame if they don't put it out on DVD or re-release it on VHS. I was lucky enough to find a copy at a video store going out of business which sold off their inventory. I would definitely recommend it.

I am in agreement with much of what other reviewers have said -- I have watched this film many times and it remains one of my favorites, right for the particular mood.... it stays in the mind, works in the subconscious, makes one wonder and ponder. It is certainly suspenseful and spooky in parts, and yet beautiful. Someone else mentioned its pagan side and the nature spirits' aspect of the story, which is certainly an important part of it. Leah embodies that -- her mother was killed as a witch when Leah was a child, and she has inherited her mother's apparently genuine powers and inclinations, a fact either unnoticed or kept in denial by those around her. To add something to the "pot" that no other reviewer has yet mentioned: Leah also speaks Irish. That is the language of the spell she casts to save the preacher from being hanged, for example. "Bris, a théaid!" (break, Rope!) is what she commands the noose, and it does as she asks...... As the escaped preacher's party flows down the river, and as they move deeper into the enchanted forest, Leah merges ever more with Nature, and grows in the strength and attunement she will need if she is to save the children, the innocents, from the addled adults' fate... I love this movie. Strange as it is, odd as it is, it does have a fascinating kind of resonance and depth and beauty. It's a keeper, as far as I am concerned.

I don't know if this version being sold is good but I have seen this film many times and can recommend it as a truly unique film. Originally it was "Eyes of Fire" (1983).

The setting is America in pre-Revolutionary times, around the time of the French and Indian War. An unusual young Irish woman with paranormal powers was raised by a preacher. He has a Scots-Irish flock. She saves him from being hung (he likes to play in others' gardens). The faithful core preacher's flock flee down the Ohio River, past the British line into French territory. The Shawnee whose territory the British settlers have invaded are not real happy about this.

The preacher has taken the wife of a backwoodsman who was always leaving his family to go off and hunt in the wilds. He tracks down his family who is with the preacher fleeing from the Shawnee. The frontiersman saves the settlers, and the Shawnee pursue them until they reach a certain tree. Then the Shawnee begin to laugh, and will not go further, for the settlers have come to a very bad valley, a place haunted by angry nature spirits and the ghosts of French settlers who initially settled there.

It turns out the valley is under the control of a sort of a genius loci made of accumulated deaths of innocent animals, the injustice pooled into a sort of dark rage that seeks revenge on anything human. And the movie continues from there.

The feeling of the movie is like a very dark and bizarre family film from the 70s, based on an authentic folk legend.

In some ways it is also like the Japanese horror films of the 90s, especially Ju-on (The Grudge) or "The Grudge."

"The success of the 1998 film The Ring (Widescreen Edition) brought the image of the y'rei to Western popular culture for the first time, although the image has existed in Japan for centuries. Y'rei are Japanese ghosts, ones who have been bound to the physical world through strong emotions which do not allow them to pass on. Depending on the emotion that binds them, they manifest as a particular type of ghost. Most common to Japanese horror is the onry', a y'rei bound by a desire for vengeance." ([...])

"It was said that when one person dies with a deep and burning grudge, a curse is born. The curse gathers in the place where that person has died or where he was frequent at (in the series' case, the house in Nerima) and repeats itself there. The curse manifests on those who encounter the curse by any means, such as entering the house or being in contact with somebody who was already cursed. The curse's manifestation is mainly death, where the victims' bodies may or may not disappear. The following deaths create more curses and spreads the curse in other places." ([...])

The underlying rationale/mechanism of "Eyes of Fire" is similar. Only instead of the murder of a human being creating this situation, it is the murder of thousands of murdered animals, by human hunters, both white and Indian. This is the source of the title, "Eyes of Fire," for it is the reflection of a campfire in animals' eyes at night.

It's a very interesting film, worth a watch.

"Talk to her, Da. Talk to her sweet". So begs a teen daughter of her father Marion, whose wife is now held in thrall by a hyprocritical preacher and his feral ward. Like other charlatans, this "enlightened" man has taken his flock on crusade for places new, ones that won't look too closely at his sinful habits, adultery being only the most obvious. And they find an Eden, too--a heavily-wooded valley with only deserted cabins and a strange Native-American feather display to warn that this place is deserted for a reason. Then the fun starts.

"Alone--abandoned--I cross on the Stygian ferry..." Vengeance, the natural balance of things, the effete, self-serving Old World versus the new, realistic, hard-bitten, sensitive North American, the mighty reckoning that seems to come out of the soil itself--this "horror" flick actually has themes. And it's all mixed up in the French and Indian War--King William's War, I think--a time before America even "was", and when going over the next mountain could place you in an enemy French camp. That's where three little girls end up, and it's the measure of their terror that it feels safe.

My old copy--taped from a tape in the 80's--is literally disolving into dust. So excuse me while I finally click "purchase". It's about time!

Yes, I can also see where The Blair Witch idea came from. Almost a prequel by accident, this story is equally as creepy, but set in northwest Pennsylvainia along the Allegeny river. The scenes with the mud witch are just plain weird and scary, especially when she is wallowing beneath a tree in the mud at the roots. You get the feeling that this evil is very, very ancient, and very, VERY sinister. This isn't your typcal horror movie. This takes some paying attention because it is plot driven, unlike most horror now days that is plot weak. It is also filled with strange images like a tree with white feathers, and bodies in a dark pool. The naked mud people flash in and out and run here and there and suckle from the cows. Their faces are in the tree bark, too.
This was a horror story that mattered. What I mean by this is it is a story full of depth and imagery, and very well written and told. The research behind this tale is phenominal for a low budget horor tale. The writers did the homework to get the Irish spells and historical facts.

Hopefully it will appear on DVD someday. I own 2 copies on VHS myself. It's sad the makers of the Blair Witch didn't cast references or clues to this hidden gem. It would have added to their tale and brought deserved attention to this hidden, almost secret film.

This is one of those movies that, once you've seen it, you wonder how it largely has escaped the notice of fantasy- & horror-film fandom. Clearly this film was noticed by the Blair Witch gang, though BW doesn't come close to evoking our collective memories of the spirits of the eastern forests to the extent that EoF accomplishes.

Seeing this title make it to DVD would be gratifying, indeed!

I have seen thousands and thousands of horror movies and this is one of the best. It is a really good ghost story and sums up the time period well. I want it on DVD

this was a great little horror film such great atmosphere and creepy characters the acting is solid and the narrator does a great job explaining what is happening which was important because the film has some bizarre scenes in it some pretty good effects as well for such a low budget i highly recommend it!

I have seen this numerous times and am still impressed by it. I won't bother to tell the story again as several others have done it well enough. The pacing is great, it keeps the tension built up. The acting is excellent! You can really believe in these characters. The story line is also great. A period piece set in the early American Frontier that really makes you feel and understand that time. Just a great movie that got sadly overlooked and hopefully like all the rest I hope to see this on dvd at some point. I would almost like to see a remake but only if they could retain all the elements without the typical over the top hollywood style of "more is better".
Now for the negative, the special effects are sometimes cheesy.The overly used synthesizer as a scary effect sometimes is cringe worthy.The witch looking cross eyed as she "melts" back into the forest floor is more silly than scary. And what the hell is up with the salamander that suddenly shows up? That should definitely have been reworked.I can think of a billion ways to have done that scene And NOT ONE would involve a salamander! Not even a lizard of any kind. But does any of this ruin the movie? No.If these appeared in a lesser movie (like those by current hollywood standards) it would have totally destroyed it.
With all that in mind it's easy to overlook those glitches because of an excellent cast, story, and masterful directing. Is it worth 5 stars? You bet. Is it worth multiple viewings? Oh yeah. I've seen it many times already and will see these many more times.