See No Evil

It seems that blind people are perfect targets for psychological thrillers as was most clearly demonstrated in the Audrey Hepburn film, Wait Until Dark. Mia Farrow stars as a young woman recently blinded in a horse riding accident who has come to live with her Aunt and Uncle in the English countryside. There are two parts to this film interspersed throughout: the first involved Farrow going about her daily routine in the house not realizing that the dead bodies of her family are strewn about. These scenes are fantastically suspenseful and director Richard Fleischer only reveals what the audience has long feared moments before Farrow makes the discoveries herself -- in a sense placing the audience in the position of the blind person. There's one wonderful moment involving pieces of broken glass on the ground. The second part, however, doesn't hold up as well. It involves the killer, who for most of the film is only seen from the kness down wearing cowboy boots with a star on them and jeans tucked into the boots (a fashion statement that would lead me to question the sexual orientation of the killer). Unfortunately the starred boots fail to inspire any fear in the audience and most of these scenes are poorly executed, leaving the ending to be only barely passable, especially since there is no motive (but I'm betting on homoerotic tension). However, when Mia Farrow is on screen it's a top notch thriller.