Entertainment
Disturbing, R-Rated 70s Thriller Sees Evil Before It Happens
By Robert Scucci
| Published
If you ever found yourself wondering what it would be like if a Precog from Minority Report made a living shooting smut, 1978’s Eyes of Laura Mars has the answer you’ve been looking for. We’re not getting the sci-fi treatment here, however, but rather a neo-noir murder mystery centered on exploitation and sensationalism, anchored by a screenplay written by John Carpenter and directed by Irvin Kershner. As the mystery unravels, so does the film’s titular protagonist, who finds herself caught between her controversial occupation, an escalating criminal investigation tied to the deaths of her friends and colleagues, and a pool of suspects who are just a little too close for comfort.
Never afraid to go fully mental with its premise, Eyes of Laura Mars checks off all the boxes for a compelling psychological thriller, and it’s largely thanks to the on-screen chemistry between Faye Dunaway and Tommy Lee Jones.
A Suspicious Amount Of Precognition
Eyes of Laura Mars tells the tale of its eponymous heroine (Faye Dunaway), a fashion photographer who’s made quite the name for herself with her risqué images. Her work centers on staging violent scenes involving assault and exploitation, often echoing the kinds of compositions you’d expect to see in crime scene photography. Laura’s work is the talk of New York City, and she lives the high life, especially now that her photography book The Eyes of Mars is about to hit shelves.
The night before her book release, Laura begins experiencing disturbing visions. She witnesses murders, but from the first-person perspective of the assailant committing the crimes. Nightmares alone wouldn’t be cause for alarm, but Laura quickly realizes that these visions are tied to real events. She’s watching her friends and colleagues get killed, without knowing whose eyes she’s actually seeing through.
After crossing paths with Laura, Lieutenant John Neville (Tommy Lee Jones) is tasked with investigating the grisly murders before the killer strikes again. He suspects that Laura’s ex-husband Michael (Raul Julia) may be involved, largely because the timeline of his return to New York City lines up with the rising body count.
What troubles John most is how many images from Laura’s upcoming book bear a striking resemblance to unpublished crime scene photos connected to murders that haven’t yet been solved. Either Laura is blacking out and killing people herself, or she possesses some inexplicable ability to witness murders moments before they occur. As John and Laura grow romantically involved and the killer escalates, Laura begins pushing everyone away, realizing she no longer knows who she can trust.
Neo-Noir Beats And A Classic Twist
If you’ve spent any amount of time watching psychological thrillers, you’ll likely clock the guilty party in Eyes of Laura Mars before the credits roll. That doesn’t make the film hack or derivative, but it does rely on a logic that many modern, second-rate thrillers have turned into a familiar template for cranking out neo-noir mystery fare. Even with what I’d consider a fairly predictable third-act twist, the film remains engaging, especially during Laura’s violent visions, when she knows another one of her friends is about to be killed and she’s powerless to act quickly enough to stop it.
Tommy Lee Jones’ portrayal of Lieutenant John Neville stands out because the clear conflict of interest between his growing affection for Laura and the case itself threatens to cloud his judgment. John is aware of this and remains committed to solving the murders, even as his investigative instincts become compromised. For all he knows, he could be dating the killer, unknowingly putting himself directly in harm’s way.
Faye Dunaway’s take on Laura Mars walks a fine line between a hysterical damsel in distress and a woman who’s had enough and is ready to take control of the situation. It’s a performance that adds depth to a character who could easily fall apart under a more one-dimensional approach.
Eyes of Laura Mars is equal parts glamorous and violent, but what really pulled me in is how it leans into classic slasher beats without ever fully committing to that lane. Most of the violence happens off screen, allowing the mystery to take center stage while the tension remains intact. Things only get worse before they get better in Eyes of Laura Mars, and you can see for yourself by streaming the title for free on Tubi.
Entertainment
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Entertainment
BookCon 2026: Authors Rachel Reid, Stephanie Archer talk hockey romance and how it could change the sport for the better
With the fervor of Heated Rivalry, there’s a fierce desire among book readers for even more hockey. On Sunday, April 19, at BookCon, the “You Had Me at Hockey: A Look at One of Sports Romance’s Hottest Genres”, authors Rachel Reid (Heated Rivalry, Game Changer), Emily Rath (Pucking Around), Ngozi Ukazu (Check Please), Stephanie Archer (The Wild Card), and Kate Cochrane (Wake Up, Nat & Darcy) were joined by moderator and fellow author Bal Khabra (Collide) to discuss the rise and continued success of hockey romance.
Khabra kicked off the panel, asking just how hockey became so popular. Ukazu joked that it was as if the genre “escaped containment,” like when the Omegaverse went mainstream, while Reid described the mystery around hockey, saying, “what [the players] are doing seems impossible.” Archer also added that the sport itself is exceptionally hard on the body, and the celebrity around players, especially in Canada, is fun to play with.
But there’s more to the genre’s success than the tropes. “It has to be said,” Rath argued, “that the cornerstone of why this is so popular in publishing is racism.” She went on to say that straight, white women’s voices dominated the romance genre for so long, pointing out that hockey is also the whitest sport. Among major league sports, the NHL is the most predominantly white. In 2022, ESPN reported that 83.6% of league players and staff were white, compared to the NFL, where 25-27% of players are white, or the NBA, where white players make up 17.5% of the league.
Mashable Top Stories
Zooming into the genre, the authors also spoke about the writing process. They dove into the deeper aspects of their work, even the smut. Rath said, “I think the least sexy thing you can ever do is write a sex scene.” A similar sentiment came up during Reid’s Saturday panel, where she described using the sex scenes to further the emotional arc. When readers ask authors if they can skip the spice, Archer says of her own books, “No, you can’t skip the sex scenes. You’re missing so much character development if you don’t go on the journey with them.”
The panel turned to the future, too. Many of the authors write BIPOC and queer representation into their novels, in a genre that often centers on whiteness and homophobia. “We’re writing the world as we want it to be,” Rath said.
Reid has found that there is progress toward a future that these authors and their readers want to see, saying that the NHL is interested in working with them. “People on the inside, they really want to work toward change and want to make this happen.”
With the hockey fandom at an all-time high, there’s a whole team behind these authors ready to drive change.
Entertainment
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Credit: BJ’s Wholesale Club
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Mashable Deals
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Mashable Trend Report
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StackSocial prices subject to change.
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