Rating summary

Movie		2.5
Video		4.0
Audio		3.5
Extras		3.0
Overall		3.0

Deadly Eyes Blu-ray Movie Review

Rats, foiled again.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman July 22, 2014

Steroid use has become a major scandal in American (and global) sports activities, but you hardly ever hear of superpowered vermin who have ingested the body (and mind) altering drugs. That is, unless you watch Deadly Eyes, a patently goofy 1982 film that plays on one of the vagaries of modern day urban living—namely, rat infestations. Deadly Eyes (which is known under a variety of titles, and which is actually labeled Night Eyes on the source elements utilized for this release) has a certain reputation in horror circles for its frankly hilarious use of Daschunds in not all that convincing rat costumes as the virulent beasties of the film. That gambit gives Deadly Eyes a comedic bite (so to speak) that was no doubt unintended. In other ways, Deadly Eyes falls squarely into tropes already explored in previous “killer rat” entries like Willard and its sequel Ben. The scurrying little critters swarm various unsuspecting folks (and even some suspecting folks) and chew them up into rat snack sized chunks. A stalwart hero and several acolytes attempt to alert the public while also dealing with the obvious health menace, but of course as in all good horror films, it takes a certain amount of carnage before at least a modicum of order is restored—and even then, the (subway) door is left open to the possibility of a sequel (which thankfully never materialized).

While films like Ben and Willard were at least a little circumspect in revealing their rodent focus with their apparently mundane titles, at least two of Deadly Eyes’s alternate monikers, Rats and (just for good measure) The Rats, give up the ghost (so to speak) from the get go. While it’s notable that “marauding beast” films from Jaws to Pirhanha to Anaconda similarly don’t try to hide what the ultimate “monster under the bed” (and/or water) is going to be, many films of this ilk at least try to build up some suspense in terms of whatever the beastie going bump in the night is going to be, or at least look like. Deadly Eyes is nowhere near as subtle, giving at least a glance at the patently ridiculous dog-rats from quite early on, and letting the audience know the gist of the setup within the first few minutes of the film’s opening.

With the foundation in place within the first couple of minutes, the rest of Deadly Eyes is left to play out in a series of showdowns between various humans and the invading horde of vermin, along with a little soap opera courtesy of some of those humans, chief among them high school teacher and basketball coach Paul Harris (Sam Groom). Paul is surrounded by an unlikely coterie of hangers-on, including (of course) a rat expert named Dr. Spenser (Cec Linder) and not one but two quite attractive females, a health inspector named Kelly (Sara Botsford) and a cheerleader named Trudy (Lisa Langlois), a lass ostensibly too young for Paul, of course, though she herself doesn't think so, in one of the film's slightly unsettling but titillating aspects . Just to up the terror quotient slightly, Paul’s young son is also introduced somewhat later and expectedly is momentarily threatened by the vicious steroid abusers.

There are a number undeniably disturbing moments scattered throughout Deadly Eyes, including the consumption of one baby (yes, baby) and several adults. But the scares are mitigated by the production values, especially the completely laughable “special effects”, which even the filmmakers in several retrospective interviews included on this Blu-ray as supplements seem to concede were not the most facile ever committed to celluloid. Some fans may perk up during a big attack scene in a movie theater which may evoke memories of a similar gambit exercised in the first ever Sensurround flick, Earthquake, where the titular tremblor hits while people are watching a movie. Here, a rapt audience is entranced by Bruce Lee in The Game of Death, a rather odd choice until you realize both the Lee film and Deadly Eyes were Golden Harvest productions directed by Robert Clouse. There’s an amusing subtlety to the fact that the title of the Lee film alludes to what’s about to happen to the happy filmgoers, but that’s about the only subtle thing parading around this patently goofy enterprise.

Deadly Eyes Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Deadly Eyes is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Scream Factory (an imprint of Shout! Factory) with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.78:1. While this was a low budget feature and bears a certain lack of glossy production values, the film pops surprisingly well in high definition, with good, accurate color and some extremely vivid saturation of reds, something that helps the gore scenes achieve a notable gross out factor. Fine detail is quite good in close-ups, but tends to retreat in midrange shots. Outdoor locations (the film was shot in Toronto) provide good to very good depth of field. Contrast is also strong here, helping to elucidate some of the shadowy confines of underground locations where the rats like to dwell until their next attack.

Deadly Eyes Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Deadly Eyes features a lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mono track that gets the job done without much fuss or bother, but which has an unusually noisy high end at times and also signs in an early scene of some kind of midrange disturbance (not quite what I'd term typical "distortion", but something close) a couple of times. Otherwise, though, everything is perfectly listenable, with dialogue and the loopy (literally—it sounds like a tape loop) rat sounds coming through loud and clear.

Deadly Eyes Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Deadly Eyes: Dogs in Rats' Clothing (1080p; 24:05) is a fantastically fun piece featuring a great interview by Charles H. Eglee, among several others.


• Interview with Actress Lisa Langlois (1080p; 18:50). Langlois has some nice reminiscences about her audition and the shoot.


• Interview with Actress Lesleh Donaldson (1080p; 13:48). It's obvious the interviewer has asked her many of the same questions that were lobbed at Langlois, but Donaldson has some good anecdotes about the shoot.


• Interview with Actor Joseph Kelly (1080p; 13:22). Kelly was evidently not asked about being a "scream queen" (thankfully, I guess), but he also offers up some good reminiscences about everything from his audition to the shoot.


• Interview with Special Effects Artist Allan Apone (1080p; 14:07) offers some (unintentionally?) hilarious commentary about how to make a dog look like a rat. It's evidently harder than it looks.


• TV Spot (1080i; 00:31)

Deadly Eyes Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Scream Factory continues to mine the seemingly inexhaustible supply of little remembered horror films of yore, and this release of Deadly Eyes provides generally excellent video and very good audio, along with a nice supply of bonus features. Somewhere out there is some horror fan sighing rapturously, "At last! Deadly Eyes on Blu-ray! Now I can die peacefully!" (That last comment is more than can be said for most of the victims in the film). While this is the very definition of a cult item, curious onlookers may want to check this out simply for the laughs the dog-rats provide. Be afraid— be very afraid.