Writer(s): Karl
Starring: Madelaine Petsch, Alexander Koch, Lee Jones and December Ensminger
I’m tempted to say that Sightless is one of MarVista’s “better” efforts - and it may very well be - but it’s kind of hard to take anything they do seriously at this point. It straddles the line between being just another formulaic thriller for which they are known, and a movie with aspirations of actually being good. The end result is a thriller with no thrills; a mystery with a payoff that is as asinine as it is improbable.
Sightless follows Ellen Ashland, a former violinist who was left blind in a brutal attack. As she is coming to grips with the news that she will never see again, she is given a fancy apartment - paid for by her terrible ex-husband - and a young caretaker named Clayton, who we immediately suspect of being shady simply because he seems nice, and nice people are always evil in this type of movie. The two of them quickly form a bond together, which is also expected considering the protagonist always has to fall for the person in charge of taking care of them.
Through flashbacks and her newly discovered extrasensory sense of hearing, we follow Ellen as she tries to piece together the events that led her to her current state. Who was the gas masked villain whose attack left her blind? Who is the sobbing woman who lives next door and whom Ellen is convinced is being abused by her husband? Why won’t her friend ever answer when she calls? Is Clayton really who he says he is? And what is the deal with the car alarm that she hears every single day at the same exact time? Will you even really care about the answers to any of these questions? The answer is a resounding "no".
Admittedly, Sightless utilizes some pretty clever effects to insinuate things aren’t as they seem, something we already knew considering we’re watching a thriller. For example, in one scene Ellen is looking at a green bird, and asks Clayton to describe it to her. He tells her it’s blue, and the bird changes colors from blue to green in an instant, right before our eyes. In another scene a woman talking to Ellen has no visible wounds, but one suddenly appears after Ellen touches her face and notices a stitched-up gash. It does an interesting job of making us feel about as blind as a piece of visual-oriented media can.
Unfortunately, that - and Madelaine Petsch as Ellen - are really the only two things that stand out here. Actually, I guess that’s kind of a compliment, because in a lot of MarVista productions, nothing stands out at all, except for maybe just how terrible certain aspects are. And, to be clear, there’s also plenty of terrible: The plot “twist” is abysmal, and the movie’s use of a single setting does it more harm than good, by calling attention to just how boring the story is.
This is one of those movies that falls in the black hole of my own ratings system: Despite the occasional flourishes that elevate it above the typical mindless drivel of MarVista, it’s still very much a B-movie at its core. Its aspirations to be so much more than that are somewhat admirable, but unfortunately also prevent it from being entertaining; it’s got all the predictability of similar Lifetime-style productions, but without the self-aware ridiculousness.
And that, unfortunately, gives one virtually no reason at all to sit through this predictably boring mess.
ENTERTAINMENT RATING: 2.5/10
TRAILER
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