![Eyes Without a Face [re-release]](/a/img/resize/7b1ba984de8101fae137bc14c741031b775e8575/catalog/provider/2/2/2-933438535bffb51117e202845e1cab3a.jpg?auto=webp&fit=contain&height=480)
SummaryIn this 1960 French-Italian horror film, a father's love for his daughter becomes a nightmarish obsession, as he sacrifices many innocent girls in his attempt to reconstruct his once-beautiful daughter's disfigured face.
Directed By:Georges Franju
Written By:Jean Redon, Pierre Boileau, Thomas Narcejac, Claude Sautet, Pierre Gascar
Eyes Without a Face [re-release]
Metascore
Universal Acclaim
90
User score
Generally Favorable
7.3
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Top Cast
Metascore
Universal Acclaim
89% Positive
8 Reviews
8 Reviews
11% Mixed
1 Review
1 Review
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
100
There’s no other movie quite like it.
100
Disturbing, disorienting, quietly terrifying, it's one of the least known of the world's great horror movies and, in its own dark way, a startlingly beautiful and artful piece of cinema as well.
User score
Generally Favorable
71% Positive
36 Ratings
36 Ratings
18% Mixed
9 Ratings
9 Ratings
12% Negative
6 Ratings
6 Ratings
Apr 7, 2016
9
A movie without a face. Eyes Without a Face represents the unimaginable pain of living without a face while they still have eyes to see and keep track in incoming people in the way.
Oct 1, 2016
8
The age old question to who let the dogs out has been answered. It was Christiane (Edith Scob) the entire time. Somebody should let the Baha Men know that their answer came 40 years before the song. This haunting French film from director Georges Franju is a classic for good reason. It may be slow, but it feels relatively devoid of classic horror cliches. Rather, Eyes Without a Face is a film truly about guilt, emotional trauma, and depression. Like a black cloud, the atmosphere hangs over this film and it proves to be quite unsettling, even if it never downright scary. Rather, it is a thoroughly and subtly haunting experience that feels wholly unique and original. With an odd score that often likes annoying carousel music, Eyes Without a Face is a film determined to buck expectations. By the end, the once annoying carousel music turns into a menacing sound due to the implication about what is set to begin when it is heard. The same can be said about the general plot. It honestly sneaks up on you. While I knew what the film is about, the true horror of this film is revealed in the details as you realize that Doctor Genessier (Pierre Brasseur) sincerely believes he must do this for Christiane. He is obviously a sick individual, but also one suffering greatly from grief and trauma over the situation he caused for his beloved daughter. Though one has to be sick to go to these lengths, the emotional trauma and helplessness he feels is intensely relatable. That said, the scene in which he actually takes **** face is pure horror. While much of the film can be more accurately described as psychological horror, this one sequence puts it over the edge. So calculated, so graphic, and so horrifying to think of the ramifications of this sequence, I am weak so I had to look away, but it was still traumatic. The sequence is that good. This same trauma is shown at the end when Christiane frees her father's last captive and the dogs he experimented upon. Given her great levels of depression, one must assume that Christiane has finally given up all hope and will kill herself at long last. The sheer hopelessness of this element of the film really underscores its balance between true horror and a film that explores the depths one can be driven to from grief. A classic of the genre, Eyes Without a Face has had clear influence on later films (Halloween, Face/Off for example) and with good reason. It can be a bit slow a times, but is more than rewarding and proves to be a highly haunting experience when it is all said and done.
90
A masterpiece of poetic horror and tactful, tactile brutality.
88
Eyes Without a Face, outre as it is, never tires as hypnotic, touching, ghastly fun.
88
Franju constructs an elegant visual work; here is a horror movie in which the shrieks are not by the characters but by the images.
67
Franju conjures images -- sometimes gory, sometimes poetic, sometimes fantastical -- that genuinely haunt: the essence of the cinema distilled.
60
Director Georges Franju has given this some suspense and not spared any shock details. But the stilted acting, asides to explain characters and motivations, and a repetition of effects lose the initial impact.
Sep 12, 2024
6
Creeping, poetic French horror that wears classical inspirations on its sleeve while trying to nudge the genre in bleak new directions. It's a mixed bag, really. The superficial elements - framing, effects, visual themes - are top notch, real cutting edge stuff for the period. The sympathetic lead, a young woman whose face was ravaged by a violent car accident, wears a fragile, unsettling China doll mask to conceal her disfigurements. This is an especially powerful effect when combined with the rich, black-and-white film stock, which makes it difficult to determine where the mask ends and her flesh begins. Late in the picture, as the girl's mad surgeon of a father graphically peels the skin away from an unwilling donor to "fix" his daughter's wounds, it's tough not to flinch. The scene, and the concept, is that convincing, that unnerving. The plot suffers from a serious lack of depth, however, retreading the same territory several times before making any progress, and the film plods along for too long as a result. A terribly loud, mismatched score further sours matters, flooding the room with brow-furrowing carnival music at regular intervals. It's a curious relic, one which clearly influenced a generation of filmmakers, but probably works better as an exercise of original theories than a complete picture.
Oct 14, 2025
4
Enjoyed the concept and a strong visual style for the era. But performances and dialogue leave a lot to be desired here.
Jul 31, 2020
3
There are things that make me want to like the movie, like the premise and the acting, but it was so difficult to get into because of the slow-pace and heavy use of these needless filler scenes that should have been cut out. It's a 90-minute film that really should have been 60-70 minutes and it just failed to really capture my interest. Not to say that it is a terrible movie but I just couldn't get into it.
