BLOGTOBER 10/17/2025: THE HYPNOTIC EYE
(Yes, I am once again posting out of order, just to keep a certain theme together)
This was one of this Blogtober season's biggest surprises. I was expecting a hokey, gimmicky grade B thriller -- which it certainly is, but it is also a sadistic, misogynistic precursor to THE WIZARD OF GORE. Who knew? Not me!
THE HYPNOTIC EYE wastes absolutely no time launching into its shocking premise: Following each of celebrity hypnotist Desmond's successful stage shows, his pretty young audience volunteers are mysteriously compelled to disfigure themselves. Unfortunately, the only thing Detective Dave Kennedy hates more than Desmond is hypnotism itself, so he has to be dragged kicking and screaming to the conclusion that Desmond's powers are to blame. Will our hero get the fucking memo soon enough to save his self-sacrificing girlfriend, whose own investigation puts her continuously in harm's way? Is Desmond's sinister assistant Justine (Allison "50-Foot Woman" Hayes) another one of his mesmerized slaves, or is something more disturbing afoot? I'm not going to answer any of these questions here, because even if you manage to predict the ending, it's still pretty startling!
The only catch is that to get to all the WIZARD OF GORE-esque goodness, you have to suffer through some exceedingly goofy scenes of hypnosploitation and, er, beatniksploitation, featuring poet Lawrence Lipton (yes, James' dad). The "HypnoMagic" technique promised by the movie's marketing consists of Desmond (Jacques Bergerac) breaking the fourth wall to shout at you abrasively in a way that could not possibly be considered hypnotic, despite the maddeningly long sequence in which hysterical audience members pretend to be unable to separate their fingers or sit up straight. They really tried to go full William Castle for this movie, sending hypnosis consultant Gil Boyne around to screenings where they also distributed the "hypnotic eye" balloons featured in Desmond's performances -- none of which succeeded in achieving lasting notoriety for the obscure proto-slasher. The most fun thing I learned, though, is that Kodak used the film's first shocking kill to produce an early lenticular photograph, which they gave out to buyers to promote this new technique. I wonder how hard it would be to get your hands on one of those today!
