After about an hour, I realized in watching this creepy horror film that it was best to continue viewing it as a dark comedy. It's certainly has many moments that made me reluctantly laugh, but I couldn't help it in the most notable melodramatic moments when several of the kidnapped victims of doctor Richard Basehart escape. One is quickly captured in the front yard (with no neighbors even noticing), and another makes it to the highway with bass hard chasing her, aided by a force that she didn't even perceive in taking care of the situation. Then there is a presence of Gloria Grahame, looking like she stuck additional cotton into her mouth to give her that pouty look, her squeaky voice even more affected than it was when she played Ado Annie in "Oklahoma!".
The story surrounds Basehart's desire to find eyeballs for daughter Trish Stewart who was injured in a car accident and is now blind. It certainly is a gruesome theme, and there's plenty of gore within the context of the film. The snake pit of people that he kidnaps for their eyeballs becomes like a mental institution of the blind, and those scenes are very odd to say the least. The pretty poor black girl who is hired as a nurse and finds herself quickly blinded and kept in the basement is by far the most tragic character. Grahame really gets nothing substantial to do, and her character has no motivation, making her declaration of "Kill them!" to her boss all the more odd. At least with Basehart, there's a reasoning for his madness, even if he is a brutal fiend.
The story surrounds Basehart's desire to find eyeballs for daughter Trish Stewart who was injured in a car accident and is now blind. It certainly is a gruesome theme, and there's plenty of gore within the context of the film. The snake pit of people that he kidnaps for their eyeballs becomes like a mental institution of the blind, and those scenes are very odd to say the least. The pretty poor black girl who is hired as a nurse and finds herself quickly blinded and kept in the basement is by far the most tragic character. Grahame really gets nothing substantial to do, and her character has no motivation, making her declaration of "Kill them!" to her boss all the more odd. At least with Basehart, there's a reasoning for his madness, even if he is a brutal fiend.