“The Eyes Have It”

Few things are as viscerally jarring as ocular trauma in horror films. While there were all sorts of aesthetic and narrative innovations that made ‘70s and ‘80s Italian films become the buzz of the horror world, the directors’ (specifically Lucio Fulci and Lamberto Bava) indulgence in horrific eye mutilation always made them feel especially transgressive and unpredictable. Which ends up actually being a continuation of film history as one of the first films to cause riots and uproars was 1929’s UN CHIEN ANDALOU from Luis Buñuel (and Salvador Dalí).

With the windows of the soul providing so many memorable shots and scenes—whether because they are shining brightly or otherwise mutated, or because they are slowly being pulverized by the claws of demons—I decided to put together a “greatest hits” of sorts of these moments in horror films, all set to the nonstop catchiest jingle of all time for some cosmetics promotional VHS with the great tagline “the eyes have it”. I uploaded this almost a year ago (October 24, 2020 - to be exact).

I first learned about “The Eyes Have It” video from The Found Footage Festival and it has never left my brain. So please give to their Patreon to make it stop and enjoy this (very much NSFW due to gore) ode to eyeballs!