My take: Those French know how to build suspense. It may start slow but it builds wonderfully.

Rating: 3 out of 4 stars

Eyes Without a Face (aka Les yeux sans visage in French) is the story of doctor and a father who will go to any lengths to save his daughter’s face. The daughter, Christiane lost her face in a terrible accident (not quite sure how that happens without losing other major body parts, but it did).

eyes without a face

Since she has no face, Christiane must wear this utterly creepy mask. Bummer for her.

Luckily, her dad is a preeminent professor who specializes in facial transplants and skin grafting. He has not yet perfected his work, however. As a result, there are a few corpses on his path to fixing his daughter’s visage.

The plot is a bit unlikely. But what it lacks in logic, it makes up for in suspense. This film does a great job building the terror throughout the story. And the payoff is definitely worth it.

If you like Diabolique or medical horror stories, then this is for you.

I got it on disc from Netflix. Here’s a good English trailer I found for it on youtube:

Eyes Without a Face also inspired a Billy Idol song of the same name:

Don’t worry. The song has no spoilers that give away the movie plot.