As one advances in his cinemaphilia, it is increasingly rare to fall on an old nugget that has never been heard of before. This was certainly the case with UFO The Fire Eyes of the Avery Crunse, blending western and folk-horror, which amply deserves today his magnificent Blu-ray / double DVD combo set at Rimini, with its bonus tripotée. So put on your boots up, you're about to penetrate strange lost forests with heavy secrets...
Mystery in the woods of Davy Crockett
1750, at the bottom of the United States. Pastor Will Smythe (Dennis Lipscomb) and the surrounding community must leave their village, after heavy suspicions of unrighteous union between the man of faith and two ladies in his community. These two women are Eloise (Rebecca Stanley), whose trapper husband constantly travels the forest and Leah (Karlene Crockett), a young woman considered mentally disturbed. While their journey quickly becomes scabrous when the Indian populations are hostile to their presence, the small group manages to find an unexplored valley where to settle, which looks like a haven of peace. Yet, they are well unaware of the dangers that these woods lay in the peaceful appearance...
When we talked about John Ford's unsung feature The Horsemen, we were gloating about how this western turned away from the codes inherent in the genre. Its chromatic range constantly lurks towards the green, the planes are corset rather than stretched, the America represented is rather rural rather than desert... If Avery Crunse, the director of Fire Eyes, offers magnificent broad plans that embrace the rather grand landscapes of the film, the other qualifiers apply perfectly to the feature film. The vegetation is everywhere, invaded the screen, the characters are drowned in a real green hell, splendid at first glance, but resolutely poisonous.
A choice of inclusion of nature in the plan that offers, we have already mentioned, rather beautiful scenes (the descent of the river on their makeshift raft seems to be infused with the peaty atmosphere and at the same time splendid dRevelation Now a few years earlier), but mainly makes this nature one of the main characters of the Fire Eyes. As in Walkabout by Nicolas Roeg, the film offers a true animist vision that goes through the feature film. Except that, instead of staying in a purely contemplative vein, The Fire Eyes will gradually pour into a sensory and granular folk horror that will entangle her plans quite awesome moments of frizz.
From Wicker Man to the mudman
Indeed, the film is going to be traversed by increasingly horrific visions. Between this woman hurling a fat soil that will literally burst a face buried in the ice in a hemoglobin explosion, to these strange naked bodies, smacked with earth, which sometimes pursue the protagonists during the night, The Fire Eyes offer horrific visions that strike and remain engraved in the retina. If certain visual effects (overprints, light effects,...) bloom well the Eighties and offer an outdated stamp to the film, it is above all these real staging finds that remain in memory and that do not have to blush in front of the effigy of folk horror – The Wicker Man – released ten years earlier.
It's probably because of the maestria of this leading figure of folk horror that we have heard so little about the Fire eyes, despite its more than successful passages and its striking scenes. However, one can see the influence of Crunse's film in the recent The Witch Robert Eggers, whose references he would readily quote. But The Fire Eyes comes out in a beautiful box* through Rimini EditionsLet's make sure he knows how to give the film all the recognition it deserves!
* The limited collector edition Digipack 3 shutter case with case contains the Blu-ray film in cinema version (86', VF/VOST) and long version entitled Crying Blue Sky (109', VOST), the DVD of the film in cinema version (83', VF/VOST), the DVD of the film in long version entitled Crying Blue Sky (104', vost), the booklet Avery Crunse, between two worlds written by Marc Toulelec (24 pages) and bonus on the Blu-ray, Secret rests in the trees : Interview with Avery Crunse by Stephen Thrower, film historian (28').
Data sheet
Blu-ray Region B (France)
Publisher: Rimini Editions
Duration: 86 min
Release date: February 13, 2025
Video format : 1080p/24 – 1.85
Soundtrack: French and English DTS-HD MA 2.0 mono
Subtitles : French
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