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BLIND (2019)

Directed by Marcel Walz
Written by Joe Knetter
Starring Sarah French, Caroline Williams, Tyler Gallant, Thomas Haley, Ben Kaplan, Jessica Galetti, Sheri Davis, Kevin Cooper, Michael St. Michaels, & Jed Rowen as Pretty Boy!

A Hollywood starlet named Faye (Sarah French) attempts to cope with a botched eye surgery which resulted in her becoming blind. While she tries to build a new life, she finds herself stalked by a killer wearing a Ken Doll mask dubbed Pretty Boy.

In occasions like this, I like to begin with the positive. Pretty Boy looks quite disturbing. The blank stare of the doll faced mask works most of the time as Pretty Boy makes like Michael Myers around Faye’s home. Much like the vacant stares of our blind heroine, Pretty Boy’s lack of emotion makes him look downright menacing. The problem is that the silent, masked killer is not necessarily a new schtick, but it seems the filmmaker Marcel Walz really wants to make Pretty Boy a thing without providing anything like a personality, backstory, or even modus operandi of the guy. Sure he looks scary when he stands there and looks at Faye through the glass, but after the third or fourth time I saw that scene, I was asking what else does this guy have in terms of menace. The lackluster de-masking at the end really doesn’t help make this guy interesting, but kudos for the design and the first two or three times it is used effectively.

Monotonous is a word. And it’s a word I would use to describe BLIND. The acting is fine from Sarah French (I preferred her recent role as the suspicious wife in THE SPECIAL to this one). I also thought that, though she is playing a rather annoyingly upbeat character, Caroline Williams (Stretch from TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE II) gives a really solid performance. But too much time is wasted in BLIND on Faye gazing blankly out of her window, sauntering around her lavish mansion in the hills, and listening to songs by some Al B. Sure wannabe. The film highlights at least three songs by this R&B crooner and plays the entire song just to push the runtime to droning lengths. The lead in to Pretty Boy’s confrontation with Faye is long and drawn out and while he does kill a few people along the way, it all feels so mundane and energy-less. Pretty Boy lights up his secret Pretty Cave with lavish Christmas lights and the scenes are gaudy and sleazy, but Walz counters that with drawn out and slow panning shots that kneecap any feelings of unease the cinematography might imbue. Worse yet is the absolutely painful final moments written by Joe Knetter as Faye professes her affection to a lover who is actually Pretty Boy. This scene is hilariously overwritten with some of the schmaltziest monologuing you’ll see this side of a late night Hallmark mystery movie. If the slow pace of the film hadn’t driven you mad, these last moments will push you right off the cliff. Plus on a storytelling level, the stakes are way off as Faye really doesn’t knowing she’s in danger for most of the film up until a few seconds before the film ends.

Director Marcel Walz has an eye for making things look lush and dreamy and serves this up effectively a few times contrasting the brutal moves of the killer. Unfortunately, that doesn’t make up for the lumbering pace of BLIND and multitude of scenes full of superfluous monologs, droning music, and long vacuous stares. Skip this snoozer.

Click here for the trailer!!