Directed by Enzo G. Castellari (The inglorious bastards), Cold eyes of fear is a stylish giallo in the form of a home invasion thriller, laced with hallucinatory imagery and backed with an edgy score by legendary composer Ennio Morricone. An ex-con abducts the nephew of the judge who put him behind bars, and holds the nephew and his beautiful companion (Giovanna Ralli) hostage in their home. But the criminal's carefully-planned revenge runs off the rails when he realizes they are caught up in an even more elaborate plot, orchestrated by more powerful forces. From the opening scene, in which a woman is - or perhaps is not - brutally assaulted by a prowler in her home, Castellari plays with the idea of illusion and deception, and weaves these elements throughout the film. Cold eyes of fear becomes a claustrophobic game of cat and mouse, with the viewer caught in the center of the deadly guessing game.

Disenchanted and bitterly resentful, the historian Dr. Dallow has been released after 21 months in prison for playing piano in a subversive student cabaret. He refuses the Stasi's offer to help him get his university position back in exchange for becoming an informant. He lives in increasing isolation and despair as he tries to deal with the hypocritical social system and the injustice done to him. Things change after Soviet tanks roll into Prague in August 1968. The film, including original footage from the 68 invasion in Prague, is based on Christoph Hein's novella that first broached two taboo topics in East German literature: the Stasi and Soviet repression of the Prague Spring.