10 Fascinating Hollywood Stories You Didn't Know
8. Jason Bateman's Dad Made A Splatter Movie
Far more embarrassing for Jason Bateman than a resume that includes Little House On The Prairie and Teen Wolf Too is The Headless Eyes, an outrageous 1971 exploitation movie directed by his father Kent.
Predating William Lustig’s similar (and more explicit) Maniac by almost a decade, Eyes tells the story of a starving artist who, during an unsuccessful robbery, has an eye gouged out by one of his victims. This naturally leads him to become ‘The Eye Killer’, who kills his victims with a hammer before scooping their eyeballs out with a spoon.
Filmed on a budget of half a shoestring, and apparently edited with a hacksaw, the film will be appreciated by grindhouse aficionados for its raw energy as well as its depiction of a grimy, pre-Giuliani New York. It somehow led to directing gigs on the family films The Rogue And The Grizzly and Land Of No Return (starring William Shatner) as well as stints on the TV series Valerie – starring one Jason Bateman.