DeAndra Altimus
Loved this movie. I originally watched this quite a while ago so some details I've forgotten, but I absolutely remember the feeling that this movie gave me.FIRST, one of the great parts about this movie is simply what it makes you feel - anxiety, confusion, fear, tension. Because of this, I would suggest NOT reading any spoilers until you watch it. Having some idea of what is coming could impact the way that you experience the extremes in this movie and those extremes are what made it interesting to watch in the first place. If you just have to know something about it, read on although I try not to get too specific. If not, watch it before you read the reviews. If you're just looking for a good movie, this is a good movie if you have a liking for thrillers and edge-of-your-seat keep-you-in-suspense stuff. There's also some sexual content.Karen is a teenager with impaired vision. She sees outlines and can perceive differences in light and shadow enough to get around with the help of an ambulatory aid. As you'll see pretty quickly, Karen lives with her paternal grandmother and has while her father, a doctor, is enveloped in a sex scandal of sorts. There's some tension between Karen and her grandmother beginning early in the movie as Karen and her grandmother travel together to visit a rental property. The tension only escalates when Karen encounters their off-the-grid, squatter neighbor "Ted" in the wooded area around the home.You think what you're getting is the story of a defenseless young girl at the mercy of a dangerous stranger out in the woods, but its not nearly that clear cut. You think you know whats happening and then you wake up with Karen inside a closet in the home and you're lost. Just when you think you have it again, the story twists in another direction and you're scrambling to keep up. When the story comes to its crescendo, you're left wondering whats real and whats not. The movie doesn't leave you hanging, though - all is explained in the end and you realize what a deep, dark, hopeless hell Karen's short life has been. The movie reminds you that sometimes there's no happy ending in life and that our crimes come at a cost, although the toll isn't always exacted on the guilty.This probably isn't a movie for the squeamish. There are some extremely brutal scenes and the movie is underscored by a terrifying theme of incredible cruelty towards a child.
Ringworm7
I watched Blind Malice when it came out on Amazon Prime, marked as a 2016 movie. When I had finished watching, as usual I hopped over here to IMDb to check the reviews and message boards, and to ask some questions. It's all blank! (As of 3/14/16 at least.) How can this be? Blind Malice is a fairly good murder mystery, and the way it's filmed and edited puts the viewer in the lead actress' place pretty well.Gracie is partially blind, but can see some light and dark. She's fairly well-skilled in getting around and can trace over writing on paper to "read" some of the letters. Gracie and her grandmother go on a trip to clear out one of her father's rental properties. While there, the grandmother heads out to a store for a few things, and Gracie runs outside after the family dog, gets turned around a bit, but a stranger in the woods saves her from injuring herself. Gracie's no prude, and smokes a joint while her grandmother is out.Around bedtime, Grandma realizes she forgot to get cigarettes. Gracie takes sedatives for trauma - from all the flashbacks she starts having, we learn that she had lived in this house before. Between the sedatives and the pot, Gracie nods off in the bath - and this is where the movie really begins. What's really happening? Why did the stranger come in the house, what happened to Grandma? Wait, what?! I tried to follow the plot, again ... and again ... and again. The movie really twists and turns. It gets very disturbingly violent for a while. There's a thread of a child-molestation scandal all throughout the movie, at different depths - it gets deep. The ending was pretty powerful, and somewhat redemptive.The best thing about Blind Malice is the film-making. It's shot and edited to let you experience the world much as Gracie does. While not always totally distorted, the film is dark, sometimes blurry, sometimes grainy during regular scenes, just enough so you can never quite see everything properly. I found myself leaning forward, squinting, turning my head, then realized that's what Gracie was doing, so bravo for that! Also, the sounds are recorded and edited so that we hear much more background and ambient noise than usual, I imagine it's similar to the heightened sound sense of a blind person, The more stressed Gracie is, the worse the picture and the louder the tiniest sounds, which makes it downright scary and unnerving at time. Never thought one simple footstep could hold so much meaning! It made me creepily aware of every sound all that night and the next day.Overall, I think this is a good horror/thriller with enough plot twists to satisfy. It's slow-paced, then plunges forward like a roller coaster out of control. Just when you think you've got it all figured out, it's just another "cabin in the woods" flick, NOPE, think again.The actress who portrays Gracie is so interesting, I was riveted by her the entire movie. She really made me feel for her.
