See No Evil

The first 45 minutes of "Blind Terror" are excellent and you have the feeling you're watching a great thriller. Director's Richard Fleischer handling of the atmosphere and introduction of the psycho killer just by showing his feet wearing cowboy boots is brilliant.

But then the boots chase a blind Mia Farrow and as she gets away the film sort of looses intensity and impact and becomes sort of slow. It recovers later with the final sequences and revelation of the psycho.

Mia Farrow's performance as the menaced blind victim is excellent.

Although no one could say this is not an entertaining and exciting thriller -mainly fans of the genre-, you get the feeling that it could have been even better if that in-the-middle-sort-of-bump could have been avoided.

All in all, "Blind Terror" is a good thriller worth watching. A 7 (out of 10) for me.

Well made horror/suspense movie from the early 70's about a woman (Farrow), blinded in a horse-riding accident, who goes to live with her Uncle in a house in the English countryside. While she is out with her old boyfriend, something is happening to her Uncle and the rest of her family back in the house. But on returning, how can she know when she cannot see?

Good suspense - sometimes the viewer is a step ahead of the blind woman, other times we are as blind as she is, a great score and good acting by all makes this a wonderful movie for a rainy afternoon. Interesting to see Michael Elphick and a young Paul Nicholas along for the ride too.

Beautifully photographed and directed.

5 out of 5.

Sarah (Mia Farrow) is staying in the country with her aunt and uncle on their vast estate, far removed from the noise and chaos of the city. Unfortunately, these fine people have returned from a trip to said urban center, unaware that someone there has taken an unsavory interest in them.

Soon thereafter, Sarah returns from an outing, and goes about her usual routine, not knowing that her loved ones have met with a catastrophic end. Sarah is blind, and can't see the carnage as she navigates through the huge house. The dire circumstances become a nightmare, and Sarah finds herself hunted by a murderer, identified -to the viewer- only by his distinctive footwear.

Director Richard Fleischer keeps us in the dark with Sarah, using the camera to trick and jolt us along with her. SEE NO EVIL is another fantastic thriller for Ms. Farrow. This time, instead of the Devil, she must attempt to flee from an unknown psychopath. Her sightless journey is nerve-jangling and treacherous, loaded with a school of red herrings! This film is for lovers of mystery, suspense, and the cold touch of horror...

Yes, I am sure Dario Argento must have liked this movie, which was made in the early seventies, at the same he he began his career. I have watched this Dick Fleischer's film at least a dozen times and each time I love it more and more, I discover things I did not the previous time. For instance those camera movements near the floor, showing the feet whilst Mia Farrow walks barefoot - or in socks - through the living room and also the kitchen with the broken glass. This is suspense to me, when you know and see something that the character in the movie does not .. So terrifying. And the astounding Elmer Bernstein music score. It deserves to be seen by new generations of viewers, of audiences at all costs. A true masterpiece. Dick Fleischer was really a great and especially eclectic director, able to make thrillers, science fiction, adventures films as fantastic as for instance Bob Wise was. Maybe only the western genre was not really their cup of tea, although they both have made some, but not the best ever. I have always put both of them in the same basket. And both began their career at RKO pictures, as Mark Robson. And I am not surprised that the writing is from The AVENGERS series creator and best writer too: Brian Clemens.

There's been quite a few rainy afternoons when I've dusted down my copy of Blind Terror and settled down to watch it again, and every time I'm left with the same feeling: something isn't quite right about this movie, despite obvious skill in places.

Brian Clemens is hardly an intellectual writer, but as a writer of simple television thrillers he's a legend. And like many of the best TV writers, his success as a screenwriter is varied. Both Blind Terror and And Soon The Darkness point the way forward to Clemens' THRILLER TV series of the Seventies, which effectively exploited the "girl in peril" situation. What makes these two movies different is their rather unpleasant, slightly depressing feel. "Darkness" is very slow and rather uneasy in its voyeurism, whilst Terror is a little too nasty to be a wholly enjoyable thriller.

Perhaps the most telling and interesting sequence is actually the opening credits, with Bernstein's enjoyable but somehow inappropriate music accompanying the faceless killer leaving a cinema that is showing "The Convent Murders" and "Rapist Cult", an only slightly exaggerated take on early Seventies exploitation movies in Britain. He then walks along a street where every shop seems to be selling violence: a TV shop has a set displaying a murder taking place, a toy shop sells toy guns and a newsagent displays grim headlines.

From there the movie is rather predictable, and unfolds at a slow pace (nothing really happens until about 50 minutes in) but is somehow pretty watchable all the same. Along the way there are some fascinating glimpses of Seventies Britain to be enjoyed. But from the inexplicable massacre at the house onwards things feel a little sluggish and the killer is so one-dimensional we do not have much interest in his actions. And why does he try and find the bracelet again at the end, as if Sarah would still have it! The ending is terribly abrupt and nothing is explained.

Fleisher's direction though is careful and he uses a fantastic trick of keeping the camera close on Farrow during her long escape sequence so that we cannot see where she is heading either.

There are also a couple of good moments of surprise but the movie is lacking a real scare and the overwhelming impression is one of gloom.