SIGHTLESS

US 2020, and 89 minutes, Colour.
Madelaine Petsch, Alexander Koch.
Directed by Cooper Karl.

Sightless is a variation on the theme of a blind woman being persecuted. Past films of this kind have included Mia Farrow in Blind Terror as well is Audrey Hepburn in Wait Until Dark.

While there is an attack on Helen, played by Madelaine Petsch (Riverdale), it is seen in the dark, briefly and in flashbacks. Most of the action takes place in an apartment where Ellen is to recuperate. It is quite a lavish apartment, comfortable, and she has to deal with her blindness, drinks, but is looked after by her carer, Clayton, Alexander Koch.

Various people appear, confusing Ellen in her imagination, confusing the audience as we see one person taking the place of another. Ellen has hallucinations, dreams, a sense of menace, and attempted suicide.

There are indications in the screenplay has to who the villain is – but the explanation of villainy, psychopathic behaviour, his way behind what we might have imagined.

1. The title? The central character? Threats to a blind character?

2. The setting, the brief scenes on the street, the street from the windows, the confining of the action to the apartment, the corridors, the hospital room, the basement…? The musical score?

3. The credibility of the plot? Ellen, the attack, the consequences? Hospital treatment? Convalescence? Clayton and his care? Lena, her husband, the increasing terror? Dreams?

4. The opening, Ellen walking towards the window, falling from the balcony? The flashback of a month, her situation, in the street, with the violin, the various glimpses of the attacker? Hospital, her losing her sight? The consequences? The range of people tending her, in the hospital, the doctor, the detective?

5. Ellen in the apartment, managing, drinking, the comforts, Clayton and his visits, the meals, reassuring talk? The horn at 11 o’clock? The encounter with Lena, her fears, her face, the stitches on her face? Explaining this to the detective? To Clayton? The appearances of Lena’s husband?

6. The film indicating Ellen’s imagination, the various characters changing, interchanging, and the bird changing from green to blue? Ellen’s uncertainties? The audience’s uncertainties?

7. Ellen’s experiences, dangers, injuries, Clayton binding her hand? Going out into the corridor? The elevator? Leading to her going to the balcony? Waking up on the floor, the walls, climbing back to her apartment?

8. The presence of Clayton, the emotions, his approach? The revelation about Clayton? The back story of her brother, the mysterious woman, the masked attacker?

9. Clayton, psychopath, the story about her violin playing, his internment, the psychological effect, his wanting to have Ellen, her playing? The whole construction for her? Her
attacking him?

10. Six months later, her violin performance?