Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.5
Overall		3.5

Eyes of Fire Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman September 27, 2022

Note: This film is available on Blu-ray as both this standalone release and as a part of All the Haunts Be Ours: A Compendium of Folk Horror.

All the Haunts Be Ours advertises itself as "the most comprehensive collection of its kind", which may initially beg the question as to "kind of what?". But the release also comes with a front cover sobriquet proclaiming it "a compendium of folk horror", which may then beg the next obvious question as to what exactly "folk horror" is. In that regard, this set begins with a fascinating and diverse documentary which has its own subtitle referencing folk horror, Woodlands Dark and Days Bewitched: A History of Folk Horror, which provides a veritable glut of clips from international films which director (and this entire set's guiding light) Kier-La Janisse has assembled to help define the genre, but perhaps the best answer is to simply echo a certain Supreme Court Justice named Potter Stewart who was trying to decide a case involving supposed pornography, and who famously opined, "I shall not today attempt further to define the kinds of material I understand to be embraced within that shorthand description, and perhaps I could never succeed in intelligibly doing so. But I know it when I see it. . ."

While Eyes of Fire is one of only a couple of films in the All the Haunts Be Ours set which received a simultaneous standalone release in addition to the set, those with long memories may wonder why this particular title didn't come out under Lionsgate's Vestron Video imprint, since my hunch is if there are those who remember this odd but somehow weirdly compelling film, it may in fact be due to a long ago VHS version that Vestron released back in the Dark Ages of the VCR. And in fact Severin's insert booklet includes with the All the Haunts Be Ours set calls Eyes of Fire "the seminal American horror film, unavailable on home video for decades.

The story is told in flashback, and in a way might be jokingly referred to as an early version of "religious liberty", in that an apparently randy preacher named Will Smythe (Dennis Lipscomb) has been accused of dallying with some of the local women. One of them is an upstanding sort named Eloise Dalton (Rebecca Stanley), who is married with a daughter named Fanny (Sally Klein), and it is in fact Fanny who relays the story told in flashback. Another woman evidently caught in up the questionable charms of Smythe is Leah (Karlene Crockett), who perhaps understandably has been accused of being a witch. And it seems like maybe Leah has some powers, as evidenced by the way she's a veritable Deus ex Machina saving Smythe from the hangman's noose when the assembled villagers don't take kindly to Smythe's perceived cheating ways.

Perhaps surprisingly, it turns out Smythe has a bit of a cult following him, and this group breaks off from the main village to forage for themselves, in a self-imposed exile which of course will remind students of "religious liberty" of everything from the Pilgrims to the Mormons setting off to find their own place in the world where they could worship as they chose. The latter reference is hardly an accident given Smythe's surname, which is curiously close to Joseph Smith's, and due to the fact that the whole issue begins with Eloise moving in with Smythe and Leah in a perceive polygamous relationship.

Unfortunately for Smythe and his horde, there's no Brigham Young to accurately divine "this is the place", and after some skirmishes with local Native Americans, the group finds itself in what amounts to a haunted forest. As even commentator Colin Dickey gets into, Eyes of Fire may simply have too many strands to weave together, and some may feel things start to fall apart once a certain "gonzo element" takes over. The film is often incredibly scenic, but like a lot of low budget affairs, it can rise or fall on the acumen of individual performances, which are widely variant in quality.

Eyes of Fire Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Eyes of Fire is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Severin Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.85:1. Severin's insert booklet states this is a "4K restoration from the original negative", and for anyone who has only seen this film in various shoddy home theater or even theatrical release versions this should be something of a revelation. While there are some rough spots (more about those in a moment), this is often gorgeously saturated, especially in the brightly lit outdoor material, and detail levels are frequently excellent on the often finely textured fabrics on costumes and the like. Some of the "quaint" special effects may not pass muster with those raised on CGI, and some of the actual effects involving reversing polarity can definitely lead to a diminution in detail. There are a number of dimly lit sequences, including some blue graded material that I'm assuming is supposed to be day for night (or something like that), and those are considerably more gritty in terms of grain reproduction, with, again, less fulsome fine detail levels. Recurrent if minor damage has made it through whatever restoration gauntlet was undertaken.

Eyes of Fire Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Eyes of Fire features a DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono mix that has a bit of thinness on the high end at times which can make the score sound slightly brash and strident. Dialogue is rendered cleanly and clearly (witch Leah often "speaks in tongues", so don't go looking for comprehensibility there), though there are some minor signs of age related wear and tear, including some errant pops and cracks and some background hiss. Optional English subtitles are available.

Eyes of Fire Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Audio Commentary with Colin Dickey, Author of Ghostland: An American History in Haunted Places


• The Secret is in the Trees (HD; 27:39) is another interesting piece with Stephen Thrower interviewing director Avery Crouns.


• Crying Blue Sky (HD; 1:48:30) is the alternate longer cut of the film.


• Trailer (HD; 2:17)


• Short Films

  The Legend of Sleepy Hollow (HD; 13:12) is an animated piece from 1972.

  
  

  Transformations (HD; 8:34)

  
  

  Backwoods (HD; 15:25) is a Myskatonic feature based on Lovecraft.

Eyes of Fire Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

In some ways it's easy to see why Eyes of Fire has attained such a cult status within the annals of so-called "folk horror", and in fact this entry checks off a bunch of the hugely variant boxes that various talking heads list in Woodlands Dark and Days Bewitched, the documentary about this (sub?)genre also included in All the Haunts Be Ours. But as even Colin Dickey admits in his interesting commentary, the film probably goes off the rails somewhere late in the second act, and the climax in particular is patently weird. There are some interesting angles in terms of patriarchal and matriarchal dominances that Dickey gets into which may provide some interest in addition to the whole haunted forest aspect. Technical merits are generally solid (video probably more than audio), and the supplementary package very well done. Recommended.