Imagine driving home from work and just out of no where you lose your ability to see. That’s how BLINDNESS begins, with one random person going blind. it’s kind of a scary thing to think about, and it seems that not just movies but books as of late have all had topics of strange and random diseases that no one know where they came from and they show no side effects or systems that can be easily identifiable.
BLINDNESS is a simple yet complex story about a random ordinary people like you and me going blind out of no where. When a young Asian man mysteriously goes blind on his way home. He finds his way into an eye doctors office who tells him he has no signs of blindness. Yet he can’t see. The Doctor (Mark Ruffalo) wakes up the next morning and now realizes that he is blind. His wife (Julianne Moore) concerned for him calls someone and then government agents come to take her husband away. Wanting to be by her husbands side, she tell the agents she too is blind so they take her as well. They are put with a group of people in a hospital, but once the unknown blindness infects other people, the place becomes more of a prison for the blind. They have no real plumbing and the place is becoming a mess. Food rations are low and things are about to get out of control. Gang activity manifests between the people who are there, and survival becomes the name of the game among the blind. Meanwhile the world outside is becoming chaotic.
BLINDNESS has a wonderful apocalyptic script. Imagine the world going to hell in a hand basket because everyone is going blind. In the midst of it all only one women still has her sight. It’s a brilliant plot that really reflects humanity at both its darkest hour. There are reflections of the holocaust in the script, and you really start to get wrapped up in the whole story as if your actually living in this nightmare. It’s one of those stories that is not just there for entertainment purposes but it’s a story that was written to make you think about the things that go on in the world that could one day come back to bite the human race in the ass. It’s a very well, written well balanced story, with good character development and a story that will hit you right in the heart and mind.
Acting like your blind has to be one of the hardest things to do, it’s easy when you can keep your eyes closed, but to keep them open and act like your mistakenly walking into thing and making it look believable is a tough task. I have to hand it to every actor and supporting actor in this film that had to play a victim of inflicted with blindness. The performances were outstanding. The films also has some very good production value, the sets, the effects everything was really good as it relates to the movie. The lighting is sometimes over exposed to show the way people actually see. It’s said that all the victims see is bright while light. So the filmmakers shine this overexposed light in some scenes to make you the audience member seem as if your part of the film.
BLINDNESS is a movie where you really can find yourself getting deep into the plot. There are so many little things that the story throws out at you. Things like racism, holocaust, governments failing it’s people, prostitution, you name it. It’s a film where we watch society fall apart not because of war, famine or a deadly disease. It almost seems that those I just mentioned are the easy way out. Being afflicted with a disease that makes everyone in the world blind and then trying to survive is a lot more freighting than latter. BLINDNESS to many would be considered a apocalyptic thriller, but to me this film is scarier than most horror films, because it’s something that can become reality, and that’s what makes this film more freighting than any monster movie out there.
The DVD has a few special features such as a featurette called “A Vision Of Blindness” The making of the film and deleted scenes. While the disc does not offer much in terms of features, it’s worth the buy for the movie alone. It’s a very well written and it a film that is sure to haunt your mind well after your finished watching it despite it’s happy ending.
– Horror Bob
- Interview with J.R. Bookwalter - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Andrew J. Rausch - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Rick Popko and Dan West - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Director Stevan Mena (Malevolence) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Screenwriter Jeffery Reddick (Day of the Dead 2007) - January 22, 2015
- Teleconference interview with Mick Garris (Masters of Horror) - January 22, 2015
- A Day at the Morgue with Corri English (Unrest) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Writer/Director Nacho Cerda (The Abandoned, Aftermath) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Actress Thora Birch (Dark Corners, The Hole, American Beauty) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Actor Jason Behr, Plus Skinwalkers Press Coverage - January 22, 2015
