Yep, Norma Desmond, they definitely had faces back then. But today’s actors have eyes, and as two of the holiday’s notable releases demonstrate, you’d do well not to be caught in their headlights. Talk about bogey men: in Sweeney Todd, the trajectory of the title character can be found in the ravaged circles lining Johnny Depp’s
customarily demented orbs, etched as if a river of tears had burned the flesh. Those hellish shadows sidestep evocations of the tragedy and loss he’s suffered at the hands of leeches disguised as lawgivers; instead, they convey a churning madness that won’t be squelched until the Thames runs dark with vengeful blood, final proof that those Australian penal colonies were no one’s idea of finishing school.

Daniel Day-Lewis’s emerald green peepers have evinced staggering malleability over the course of his career, but
the ghostly glow they cast in There Will Be Blood will obliterate your memory of all that’s come before. They are the eyes of an evil bred by turn-of-the-century greed, and as pure a representation of one man’s bleak soul as you are likely to see onscreen, or in real life. The rest of this actor’s body follows suit—the broken walk, a voice that channels the dissolute Noah Cross as played by John Huston in Chinatown—but them there eyes will peck along the edges of your conscience long after the final reel. Watch out.

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