Nothing else in the film beats the sudden opening death, and mood setting in Brian Trenchard-Smith's Australian supernatural-horror (which was filmed on Sydney locations). The above quote is the response of one the investigating police detectives to the aftermath of the first kill. 'Out of the Body' is entertaining when it goes against logic, relishes in its lead's exaggerted performance of his character's decaying head space and sprinkles in some dark humour within bizarre situations. But you can say it's an up and down affair, which grows stranger, yet less effective as it goes along.
The story doesn't break new ground, where an unlucky music university student begins to have premonitions when alseep of POV shots of some unnkown killer stalking/murdering women by removing their eyeballs. So the added twist to the well worn premise is that it's primely supernatural in the way the victims are killed and those being targeted seem to be professional, headstrong and independant women. So what's the link. Well, lets just say expect there to be more questions than answers by the end of the film. There are certain story arches that feel like they're leading up to something of importance, but go nowhere with it. So the plot is incredibly disjointed, inconsistant and quickly moves through "nobody believes me, especially the cops, so I better save the day myself" routine which drives our protagonist to astral travel/specteral vampires mode without any sort of basis. Actually those moments are enjoyable, because they're so silly in their hsyterics which undermines whatever tension and an intensely jittery Mark Hembrow amusingly over-does it when fighting his confusion and desperation to save these women.
There's a otherworldly vibe to its atmosphere, especially during the night dream sequences as the cinematography glides and music creeps in. Smith also tries stylise alot of the night time set-pieces with lighting, shades of red/or green/or blue. Nothing over-the-top, but it was noticable, sometimes oddly placed, but typical 80s flair.
