Blind (2019) Review

Blind 2019 Pretty Boy

Blind, directed by Marcel Walz, got its UK premiere at FrightFest this year.
It was one of the films that I was looking forward to and this had a lot to do with how much I had seen it around, being that it was very well promoted on social media.

Set in LA, it follows the story of a former actress named Faye whose career came to a sudden, unexpected halt after botched laser-eye surgery left her blind.

She tries to adapt to living alone in a luxury Hollywood home without her sight, and finds support in a close friend Sophia and Luke, her personal trainer who also happens to be mute.
As the three work together to face their obstacles, Luke wrestles with his feelings for Faye, feeling constrained by the fact that she is so beautiful, and he has to use a robotic voice app to communicate with her.
But these problems pale in comparison to the one poised to put Fayes life in peril. A crazed killer known as ‘Pretty Boy’ is living in her basement and boy is he obsessed with her.

Blind 2019

The deranged fanatic is the stand-out feature of this film. Much effort spent making him look distinctive and menacing. In many ways, he is the ‘brand’, striving for the same recognition as Jason Voorhees and Michael Myers, and was touted as such in the promotion for it.

Pretty Boy aside, Blind hits that mid-to-low bar in terms of production quality when compared to the films on offer at FrightFest. It looks and sounds good enough and is obviously put together by a capable team, but its style definitely feels more made-for-television than cinematic.

The cast too have obvious experience in their field, but none give what could be described as a stand-out performance. It’s hard to tell whether this is down to their lack of enthusiasm or more problems with the script or other components.

But the biggest issue with Blind, is that it’s too disjointed.
There are two main threads, the soap opera romance between a blind woman and a mute man and the horror part which follows the footsteps of a masked psychopath (Pretty Boy) that stalks vulnerable people.
Both threads have issues. The soap opera is too cheesy, from the music to the dull, wordy, uninspiring script. The horror scenes (which are the lifeblood of the film) are interspersed throughout but are bereft of dialogue when they could probably do with some, given that they are lengthy. Sadly they don’t say enough through the visuals alone.

Blind 2019

As the film progresses the two elements combine a little more and the horror scenes, though formulaic and unrealistic, do make it more interesting.

Of course, you will have had to have endured around 50 minutes of soap opera to get to this point though. The big question is, will you have the patience for that?

Blind delivers an iconic killer but surrounds it with too much story and fluff for him to live up to his full potential. Let’s hope the sequel is more focused on scaring us than sending us to sleep.

Movie Rating: ★½☆☆☆ 

Trailer:

YouTube video
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Tom Atkinson

Tom is one of the editors at Love Horror. He has been watching horror for a worryingly long time, starting on the Universal Monsters and progressing through the Carpenter classics. He has a soft-spot for eighties horror.More

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