Evengyny Thanks for the memories!

Moustroll Good movie but grossly overrated

CrawlerChunky In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

Erica Derrick By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

adriangr I was pretty impressed with this. Well the film has a lot to live up to, being a carbon copy of so many other films in the small horror sub-genre that might be known as "brilliant surgeon kidnaps victims and operates on them in an attempt to restore his disfigured daughter to her former glory". It's been done before, most notably in the beautiful "Les Yeux Sans Visage", but let's not forget "Mill of the Stone Women", "Corruption", "Faceless" and I'm sure I've missed a few.But there are two quite good differences here: in this plot all the daughter needs is a new pair of eyeballs, and secondly, none of the unwilling "donors" in this movie actually die after their surgery, they are collected, caged and left to go mad!. Which makes for some of the best parts of the story.There are weak spots, however. Richard Basehart is pretty flat as the twisted eye surgeon Dr Chaney (oh please...!) who has no thought but for restoring his daughter's sight. He plays the role on a single note, and give the character no sense at all of anything going beneath the surface. At times I wondered of he had been studying the William Shatner school of acting, as his mumbling and lack of impact got quite annoying after a while. Also - the impossibility of the eye transplants working is obvious very early on. Right at the start, Gloria Grahame (as the doctors assistant/partner) cries "But it's impossible, it would mean destroying the optic nerve" or somesuch argument. The doctor never manages to come back to her on that. And later on, in a scene that actually made me groan out loud, a colleague sees a successful eye transplant and gasps: "But how...?" Dr Chaney just smirks and says "The real question is...why?" No - the real question really IS "how"?!! OK those things aside, the movie does a good job. For all the poor victims, it's a gruesome fate. Being drugged and then waking up in a cage with both your eyeballs missing is a horrific idea and they all manage to portray the right level of hysteria. There's even a great close up of one victim's twitching empty eye sockets near the start. Shame that later on the heavy browed "eyeless" prosthetics make them look like a bit like they are wearing the "Scream" movie killer's mask!! But the plight of these blind, caged victims is what makes the movie. The fact that none of the actors could see through their eyeless make-up probably contributes to their believable portrayals of panic. In fact the character of the daughter almost disappears from the script in the second half of the story, so small is her importance to the tale.The tension is well maintained though, and things move pretty snappily -Dr Chaney seems to go through victims at an incredible rate. And if you have any fears about losing your eyesight, I think this film will definitely give you nightmares.

joconnor8 One of Charles Band's earlier produced movies. A must for a Full Moon/Charles Band fan. Nice to add to your DVD collection though the quality is pretty bad even though it says Digitally Mastered. If this was mastered, I'd hate to see what it was before they worked on it. But the story is a gem of a horror for a low budget film. Also notice that in the end credits Richard Band was an assistant producer. And the screenplay was by their father Albert Band. And fans know where this combination went to. Empire Pictures and Full Moon Pictures. The B-movies improved along with musical scores to form a legendary team for several great videos such as the Puppet Master series and Subspecies, Trancers series as well as the well known Re-animator and From Beyond Lovecraft classics. Being a great fan of Charles Band, it was worth buying for my collection and the cost was reasonably low to purchase. Someone needs to see about getting some of the Paramount/Full Moon pictures released as well. Some of Band's finest videos are not available due to past problems with them. A real shame!

HumanoidOfFlesh A once gifted surgeon Dr.Chaney has never managed to overcome the painful memory of a tragic car-accident that left his young daughter Nancy blind.Lost in his own private hell of insanity,he kidnaps young people and makes them involuntary donors in an operation attempt to restore his daughter's eye-sight.The real horror begins when the people he disfigured rise up from the dungeon where he keeps them captive to get revenge.This gruesome Charles Band production has real-life footage of actual eye surgery and some gross makeup effects(supplied by Stan Winston).The cinematography by Andrew Davis is pretty good and the film is as dark and creepy as they come.The suffering of the eyeless victims stored in the basement is truly disturbing and effective.Give it a look,if you are not easily disturbed.9 out of 10.

Coventry I was prepared to see the worst when I pushed the play button, but this early Charles Band production turned out to be a lot better than I thought! It shamelessly steals the plot of Franju's masterpiece `Les Yeux sans Visage', but I hardly see this as an obstacle since the great Jess Franco did the same thing for his Dr. Orloff. It's the macabre fable about a doctor who causes a car-accident, and his daughter loses her sight in it. Driven by love and feelings of guilt, the doctor start to kidnap ‘eye-donors' to cure his daughter Nancy. Charles Band adds very few to the original plot except for a lot of inhuman cruelty and nasty images. The shots of the eyeless people in the basement were pretty disturbing to me, and I like to think I can handle quite a share of morbidity! By the way, the gory images of the cut out eyeballs were the work of Stan Winston, who grew on to be one of Hollywood's most respected make-up artists. The film also proves that acting performances CAN make a difference in these little low-budget gems! Richard Basehart is really good as the surgeon who slowly goes insane and Gloria Grahame is adorable as the devoted assistant. Unfortunately, this underrated actress died a few years later. Mansion of the Doomed also stars Lance Henriksen in an early role. Mansion of the Doomed is especially recommended for being a modest - but very decent - little gem, that doesn't portrays itself as highly original...just as good and gruesome entertainment!