All Eyes (2022)

January 5, 2024 2:19 AM

A disgraced podcast host (Jasper Hammer) interviews an eccentric farmer (Mel Hall) who claims to have a monster living in the woods near his house.

Directed by Todd Greenlee. Written by Alex Greenlee.
Currently streaming in the US on Tubi and Amazon Prime. Also available for digital rental.

posted by DirtyOldTown (5 comments total)

Although the whole thing smells strongly of low budget filmmaking (the overall picture quality, ambitiousness of setups, sets, etc.) I enjoyed the build up here tremendously. The payoff had enough of the monster and enough of a resolution to the story that I came out with a positive opinion, even if it was clear to me that even 20% more budget and more investment in the final monster might have made this a home run instead of a ground rule double.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 2:21 AM on January 5 [1 favorite]

All Eyes sounds like it's loosely based on an Art Bell segment that happened when I was in grad school. At the time, I didn't listen (I was too busy furiously writing papers and so forth) but a friend did. One particular segment captured his attention so much he taped it. Kinda a similar situation of a farmer, but not a monster. An alien craft crashed on his property. He managed to find one of the aliens still alive and does what anyone would do, of course, stuck him in the fridge and contacted Art Bell. Essentially the interview involved a more detailed backstory, some alleged attempts by the government to get ahold of the alien, and, of course, some audio of the "alien" in the fridge.
posted by miss-lapin at 9:04 AM on January 5

Glad to see you back, DOT! Fanfare just wasn't the same without you.
posted by Ursula Hitler at 11:19 PM on January 5 [9 favorites]

Just finished this; I really, really liked it. I've got a huge soft spot for small/indie filmmakers who don't laze into gore or nekkid ladies as their raison d'etre, and this is up there with Hellbender and in an entirely different way Psycho Goreman as my favourite little horrors from the last while by people who don't have a ton of cash or marquee actors but a good idea, a bizarre but coherent world, and in this case a solid blend of comedy and horror.

[I know this is a spoiler-okay space, but just in case... spoilers ho]

Honestly, I would've been happy with only half the premise -- just the idea of the person being lured out to the farm by an entirely sincere, wacko loon and having to escape murder traps sent by this ornery paranoid son of a bitch after he accidentally self-murders was good.

Not as enthused about the government agency angle; I think the walkie-talkie gag would have landed even better with me if it just happened to be incredibly bad luck and some other dude in trouble trying to find help.

So many nice little touches... the "shit hits the fan" rules, "range 10 feet..."

The monster around the edges was a great wraparound, but I don't even know if I needed that much of it... or even to have it definitively resolved that it exists, as opposed to it just seems very likely.

Thanks for reviewing it -- would never have found or watched this otherwise.
posted by Shepherd at 4:31 PM on January 6 [1 favorite]

I agree with you Shepherd. I thought it was good but would have been better if the monster was hinted at and the whole government agency thing was axed. Don and his booby traps were just the best and that's what kept me in this movie.
posted by miss-lapin at 10:54 PM on January 11 [1 favorite]