PLOT: A former actress who was recently blinded is stalked by a mask-wearing murderer.
REVIEW: Director Marcel Walz's BLIND is a film that has a lot going for it, starting off with the fact that it stars genre regular Sarah French and THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE 2 icon Caroline Williams. French takes the lead as Faye, an actress whose career was going strong until she was blinded by a botched Lasik surgery. Faye has now left her acting dreams behind her and is still trying to put the pieces of her new life together, and French does a fantastic job of conveying the character's emotions as she struggles to deal with all of this.
Williams provides capable support as Faye's friend Sophia, a woman who has been blind since birth and is part of the support group Faye has joined. Sophia is a fun character who spends most of her screen time trying to arrange a hook-up between Faye and their pal Luke, a mute man who is only able to communicate with them through an app on his phone. Luke is played by Tyler Gallant, another actor who does fine work in the film. Since his character can't speak, all of Gallant's acting is done through eye movements and facial expressions, and that's all he needs to get across that Luke is a genuine, good guy. We start to care about him and root for Sophia to be successful in turning Faye and Luke into a couple.
It was unexpected that the romantic drama side of this horror thriller was the most effective aspect of it, but that's how it turned out.
Horror comes into the picture through the presence of a mysterious masked man who hangs out in a lair that's lit with colorful string lights and sometimes dances with a doll while imagining that his dance partner is Faye. We know about this creep within the first 5 minutes of the movie, and Walz frequently cuts away from Faye's story to see what he's up to. Eventually he leaves his lair to stalk Faye and start killing the people around her… and as the situation got more and more horrific, I found that the movie gradually fell apart.
Walz managed to capture an appealing, captivating dream-like tone for BLIND, aided by the fact that both Faye and her stalker have active imaginations, and enhanced by Thomas Rist's cinematography. The killer's lair isn't the only colorful location; when night falls at Faye's the image becomes saturated in a blue-green light that's pleasing to look at while also giving scenes a feeling that they're occurring just outside of our reality.
I was on board with this movie for most of its running time, even when it started fumbling and falling short of potential. I was with it right up until it went off the rails in the final seconds. What could have been described as a stylish, dreamy slasher I now have to describe as a frustrating viewing experience because the ending is so unsatisfying and comes with a "what the hell?" visual that isn't explained and probably never will be.
Scripted by author Joe Knetter, BLIND is great at the set-up, great at letting us get to know and care about the characters, and then doesn't deliver enough of a payoff. It has an ending that might have worked for a short, but when the viewer has sat through 83 minutes of something we need more than what BLIND has to offer to make it worthwhile. This movie was so good for so much of it, it's a shame it ended in a way that left me disappointed.
BLIND is worth checking out, but be prepared to come up with your own answers and ending.