Film Review - Eye Without A Face (2021)

If nothing else whilst watching this wildly ridiculous entertaining voyeuristic thriller, Eye Without a Face, I learned in case of emergency you can text 911 (never knew that) and that’s exactly what agoraphobic Henry (Dakota Shapiro) does during a pivotal moment concerning an alleged murder viewed live online.

Desolate and reclusive Henry, enjoys nothing more than spending endless hours secretly viewing select young women in Los Angeles through open webcams whilst absurdly forming emotions towards them all including objecting at some of their activities as if there are his friends.

Henry has no friends other than his housemate, out of work, upbeat Australian actor Eric (Luke Cook) living in LA in hope of a big acting break.

Eventually Eric learns of the digital peeping-tom activities, dismissing it as amusing at first until he senses how deeply invested Henry really is on these unsuspecting girls.

Stunning colour palette and lighting heighten the sense of intrigue as cinematographer Tara Violet shows sleek decisions of beautiful grandeur especially holding on close-ups, particularly the eyes of Harry and face of elegant Russian, Vlada Verevko as Laura.

It’s not clear why Henry chose these particular individuals to watch over and his complexity of inner turmoil is kind of explored through brutal childhood flashbacks.

Using his natural Aussie accent. Cook had amusing candour as Eric, whilst Shapiro (also an Australian actor but playing American here) gives a solidly tense believable performance.

Not quite Rear Window (1954) or Sliver (1993) but definitely creepily effective enough to make you want to switch off, or cover those computer camera lenses with tape.