Arrow Video Presents Nico Mastorakis First Film, Death Has Blue Eyes

With a career spanning over 60 years and 22 films, Greek Director Nico Mastorakis -- known for such films as Island of Death, The Zero Boys, and Bloodstone -- learned his craft on his own, starting in television work before graduating to music videos and feature films. His freshman feature, Death has Blue Eyes, is in no way his best work, but you can tell his television studies were paying off, and showing through this film that he did know how to shoot a scene like a seasoned director.

Death has Blue Eyes can only be summed up as a paranormal thriller, a buddy film, and a softcore porn that fails miserably at all three genres.  It starts as we follow a young con man and his friend into a few misadventures before they ultimately meet their match in the form of two women (one younger, one older) who have a secret themselves: they are psychics on the run from a group of men out to capture them.

The film barely has any plot to hold onto, and most of the scenes were shot only because they had access to a particular element that is showcased in that scene, such as a formula one race car, a bowling alley, or even a helicopter. These things had no reason to be in this film, but because they had access to them, they threw them in and wrote scenes around them.

The amount of gratuitous nudity is also something that is needed to be commented on in this film. Since this was Nico’s first major film, production funds were small and he needed someone to take a chance on him. That’s where the “Porn King of Greece” stepped in, and gave Nico the money as a producer to fund the film -- as long as there were copious amounts of T&A to go along with the filming.

Arrow Video’s special features for this edition were, quite honestly, more entertaining than the movie itself. Packed with one or two surprises, you will sure have a better time watching them than you did sitting through the film.

Edition Details:

• Exclusive new interview featurette with Nico Mastorakis (24:43)

• Exclusive new interview with actress Maria Aliferi (17:49)

• Dancing with Death: tracks from the Death has Blue Eyes original soundtrack(42:03)

• Original theatrical trailers (2:25 / 3:32)

• Image gallery

Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Graham Humphreys

FIRST PRESSING ONLY: Illustrated collectors' booklet featuring new writing by Julian Grainger

Multiple times as I sat there watching I was asking, “Where are we? Why is this happening? Who is that person?”  The film gives no explanations. It is in no way a must see, but if you are a fan of Nico’s later films, this one will remind you that everyone indeed starts somewhere, and as the old saying goes, practice makes perfect. And at the ripe old age of 80 (this last April), Nico has had lots of it by now.