Evil Eyes is a 2004 American horror film directed by Mark Atkins (Haunting of Winchester House, Halloween Night) from a screenplay by Naomi Selfman (Mega Python vs. Gatoroid). It stars Adam Baldwin, Udo Kier (Blood for Dracula), Jennifer Gates and Mark Sheppard (Xtinction: Predator X)
Jeff Stenn (Adam Baldwin) is a struggling writer who is happily married to his wife, Tree (Jennifer Gates). Jeff, due to a shortage of money, accepts a job to write a screenplay about a real-life homicide that happened thirty-five years earlier.
A seemingly psychotic director (Udo Kier) who believed that creativity had unleashed dark forces, killed his pregnant wife and in-laws for no apparent reason before committing suicide.
As Jeff continues to work on the screenplay, several accidents occur around him that directly mirror events in his script. Jeff begins to think that his writing has the power to affect reality, and must question whether finishing the script will bring about the death of his own family…
Reviews:
“Sure, there were some positives, as Udo Kier was top notch, and there was a great opening scene, but other than that not much. The atmosphere is non-existent or forced, the characters have no depth, there is nothing original, and the scripting is bad.” Mark Mihalko, The Ringmaster’s Realm
” …a kind of In The Mouth of Madness Asylum-style – that builds its suspense well, is always thrilling while not resorting to the cheap and easy scares, and is definitely a smarter-than-average-axe-murderer-movie. The film is subtle, restrained and savvy, in script and direction.” H. Perry Horton, Committed
“Evil Eyes does have some things going for it by managing to build an alright eerie mood for the first half of the film and actually having a script (by Naomi Selfman) that does okay at mixing various elements (reality and dreams) together; but the film eventually starts to feel contrived and stale…” The Video Graveyard
“Without anything to grasp on from the start, it’s just a total mess. And Udo’s not in it nearly enough to make up for it; if he was in every scene at least it would be a delightful train wreck, but his ten minutes of screen time aren’t nearly enough to make up for the nearly impenetrable narrative, ugly visuals, and lack of action…” Horror Movie a Day
- Adam Baldwin – Jeff Stenn
- Jennifer Gates – Tree Stenn
- Udo Kier – George
- Mark Sheppard – Peter
- Kristin Lorenz – Nina
- Peta Johnson – Marilyn
- Eric Casselton – Gramm
- Lanre Idewu – Bryce
- Lee Anne Moore – Mrs. Marsh
- Ronald Rezac – Tree’s father
- Julie Dickens – Claudia
- Jason David – Greg
- Byron James – Bob
- Elizabeth Uhl – Judy
