Released theatrically in Germany but direct-to-video stateside, EYE OF THE STORM, a German-US co-production, is an eerie and tragic story of two brothers haunted by their past.
In the opening scene, a young boy, Steven (Bradley Gregg), watches as his motel proprietor parents are murdered by thieves. Running away from the killers, Steven jumps out of a window and is blinded by the fall. Ten years later, Steven and his older brother Ray (Craig Sheffer) are running the
motel, ironically named the Easy Rest Inn. One day, redneck drunk Marvin Gladstone (Dennis Hopper) and his gum-chewing floosie wife Sandra (Lara Flynn Boyle) check into the Easy Rest. Several fights later, Marvin walks out on Sandra but returns the next day. Ray tries to talk Marvin into leaving
for good, but he refuses. The two get into a fight, and in a psychotic rage (he thinks Marvin's the thief who murdered his parents), Ray kills his guest.
Sandra, meanwhile, gets close to Steven and isn't aware that Marvin is dead. She finds Marvin's watch and confronts Ray with it. Ray convinces Sandra that Steven stole the watch. He further convinces her that Steven was in a mental institution for two years and warns her not to tell the
authorities about the theft, or they'll take Steven away. But in a later conversation she has with Steven, he implies that Ray might have killed Marvin. Packing to leave, Sandra is stopped by Ray who tries to kill her. During the ensuing struggle, Sandra blasts Ray with the gun Marvin left in
their room. Hearing all the commotion, Steven, who was in the shed, stumbles to the motel where Sandra tells him that his brother is dead. But, from the FATAL ATTRACTION school of dramatics, Ray suddenly jumps up and tries to kill Sandra again, only to be shot dead by Steven. At the film's close,
Sandra and Steven drive off together.
Director Yuri Zeltser has put together an effective thriller, eliciting strong performances from his actors. Gregg (STAND BY ME, CLASS OF 1999), in particular, is very convincing as the blind and fearful younger brother. In addition, Karl Walter Lindenlaub's cinematography helps to punctuate this
story which illustrates the devastating effects of holding onto a tragic past. (Excessive violence, substance abuse, profanity.) leave a comment