Headless Eyes | 1971 | USA | Kent Bateman

Grimy and grungy in equal measure, Kent Bateman’s semi-experimental feature Headless Eyes is a precursor to the ‘guy going mad in the big city’ narrative that would later be popularised by Taxi Driver and Maniac. The film opens with the desperate artist Arthur who burglarises a woman’s apartment for some rent money, only to be caught by the owner who defends herself with a spoon, inadvertently gouging out the artist’s eye. An undisclosed amount of time later, Arthur is almost entirely deranged, suffering a degree of psychoses related to his now-missing eye. He takes out his frustrations on various city folk, removing their eyes and suspending them in resin sculptures. A young curious girl seems to take an interest in his work but Arthur is simply unable to let go of his personal project, going on to kill more before his eventual comeuppance. Stylistically disturbing and aurally unsettling, the film’s central focus on removing eyes from unwilling victims was likely the reason for its seizure by police.