Chad

Undeadcow

I don't know how J. Farley finds these overlooked films but I enjoyed Eyes of Fire with it's immersive period costumes, overacting preacher, and dated special effects. This was one of my favorite viewings so far this month.

The child's narration and indian child subplot added a sinister (obliviously innocent) undertone along with the mystical Leah character. The mud covered nude people feeding off a cow utter is one of the strangest things I've seen all month and the scenes with subterranean or tree people were eerie.

The ending seemed abstract and it would probably help me to re-watch it but I liked the imagery and puzzling nature of the movie.

The love triangle with the polished/unsavory preacher versus the rugged/dedicated outdoorsman seemed unconvincing at times offers some interesting themes (class warfare, sincerity vs comfort, etc).

pagefrance

J. Farley, my hat's off to you for introducing me to this gem. How had I never heard of of it? This type of folk-horror is right up my alley. The story was intriguing and very creepy and even though I did not understand all of it, it was a very rewarding view. Definitely merits a second viewing. I agree with Undeadcow above that this has also been one of my favourites so far. Great movie.

Spiderbite

Did I watch a different movie? I was bored out of my gourd. Once again, I do think the quality of the picture hurt my viewing somewhat (watching movies on YouTube sucks ass, period) but I just couldn't get into this movie. It seemed like an ABC after school special with a bit of nudity (which unfortunately is marred due to the awful picture quality).

I found nothing redeeming in this film at all. Not eerie, creepy, scary, interesting, nothing. It was just there.

My rating: * out of *****

cproaps

http://stagevu.com/video/ykbtbhymqxpu

This seems to have a little better resolution.

The story would make a good campfire tale at night, and may or may not have influenced some of the book "The Nanny" which became the film "The Guardian".

Trevor

Agreed on the above compliments, great film and great choice!

I was a little worried about the preacher being too stereotypically evil at first, but the overall atmosphere and storytelling covered all sins.

indiephantom

I went complete into what I'm dubbing the "horror challenge zone" with this one. After a steady stream of films, I get into a head space where the walls of reality fall away and I become absorbed in these diegetic worlds, regardless of how apart from my own they are. This capped off one of the better theme nights I've had thus far. Consider me now a fan of this little subgenre. @cproaps, I was getting a bit of vibe from Friedkin's The Guardian in this one, so that source material makes perfect sense.

I knew I recognized Guy Boyd from somewhere, and it turns out he's from DePalma's Body Double where he plays a snarky investigator.

DaveyJoe

I wish I could have seen a higher quality version of this film. It's amazing what a decade of DVD/BR will do to spoil you when it comes to video quality, despite growing up watching VHS tapes. Still, I thought the film was pretty interesting and at times very creepy. I didn't care for the inverted colors that they used a couple of times, but I liked the other surreal aspects of the film.

The film didn't try to explain too much, but I'm okay with that. I found the evil... thing to be effectively creepy, and the shot of his head sinking into the ground will stick with me for a while. The movie scared me quite a few times and I got a kick out of the surreal scenes featuring the naked mud people.

I would not mind checking out a few more similar folk horror flicks if anybody has any recommendations.

Undeadcow

Those inverted colors were wonky, looking on imdb.com some people seemed to cite dated effects but I thought they were all really effective excepted the inverted colors. It made me feel like Rob Zombie had interrupted my otherwise creepy horror movie.

DaveyJoe

It's just not a cool effect in any context. And I find it to be pretty harsh on my eyes. I remember watching a House of 1000 Corpses and thinking "oh great, Rob Zombie found the invert filter in Final Cut Pro."

J. Farley

Glad people are enjoying my pick. I always try to choose personal favorites that I think deserve more attention for the subset. I feel that Eyes of Fire is one of the most fascinating and imaginative horror films of the 80's. I find it's mixture of folk horror, bizarre atmosphere and nightmarish imagery to be utterly hypnotic. It also features one of the most accurate depictions of fairies that I've seen on film. I have it on VHS, but would love to see it cleaned up and properly framed. Filmed in the wilds of Missouri, it's a beautifully shot film, evident even on an old tape, so it'd be nice to see it in all it's glory. Originally titled Cry Blue Sky, the running time was cut down before it's release. Hopefully the footage still exist and can be restored some day.

If you like this, I also recommend The Shadow of Chikara. Not quite as good, but a similarly creepy period horror.

rbrown498

I feel pretty bad saying this, but I've had the VHS tape for somewhere around 20 years...and last night was my first viewing of the film! I transferred a huge chunk of my VHS collection to DVD-R a few years ago, and this was one of the ones I transferred. The DVD-R has been sitting in a box along with all the other VHS transfers, so I pulled it out for the Challenge. I'm glad that I did--the movie was strangely compelling. It's so refreshing to see someone attempt something out of the ordinary and pull it off with this much success--it happens far too infrequently.

Incredibly memorable, even if it doesn't make total sense.

Dimension X

I had trouble getting into this one. I ended up shutting it off and finishing it later on. It wasn't that it was a bad movie - I just wasn't in the mood for it, I think. I'd like to get a better copy and revisit it in a few years.

ntnon

I was fairly underwhelmed, too. Waited a few days to see if I had anything to add to this discussion, and...

..that's roughly my thinking. I was tired - I'm always tired - and I imagine that's a large part of why I barely even remember it, just a few days later.