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''See No Evil'' (released in the United Kingdom as ''Blind Terror'') is a 1971
psychological horror Psychological horror is a genre, subgenre of horror fiction, horror and psychological fiction with a particular focus on mental, emotional, and Mental state, psychological states to frighten, disturb, or unsettle its audience. The subgenre freque ...
thriller film Thriller film, also known as suspense film or suspense thriller, is a broad film genre that evokes excitement and suspense in the audience. The suspense element found in most films' plots is particularly exploited by the filmmaker in this genre. ...
directed by
Richard Fleischer Richard Owen Fleischer (; December 8, 1916 – March 25, 2006) was an American film director. His career spanned more than four decades, beginning at the height of the Golden Age of Hollywood and lasting through the American New Wave. He was the ...
, written by
Brian Clemens Brian Horace Clemens (30 July 1931 – 10 January 2015) was an English screenwriter and television producer. He worked on the British TV series '' The Avengers'' and created '' The New Avengers'' and '' The Professionals''. Early life Clemen ...
, and starring
Mia Farrow Maria de Lourdes Villiers "Mia" Farrow ( ; born February 9, 1945) is an American actress. She first gained notice for her role as Allison MacKenzie in the television soap opera ''Peyton Place (TV series), Peyton Place'' and gained further recogn ...
,
Dorothy Alison Dorothy Alison (4 April 1925 – 17 January 1992) was an Australian stage, film and television actress. Biography Dorothy Alison was born in the New South Wales mining city of Broken Hill and educated at Sydney Girls High School. She moved ...
, and
Robin Bailey William Henry Mettam "Robin" Bailey (5 October 1919 – 14 January 1999) was an English actor. He was born in Hucknall, Nottinghamshire. Often cast in upper class and tradition-bound roles such as Mr Justice Graves in Thames Television Th ...
. It follows a recently blinded woman who is stalked by a psychopath while staying at her aunt and uncle's house in the English countryside. An international co-production between the United States and United Kingdom, ''See No Evil'' marked Fleischer's second film produced under
Filmways Filmways, Inc. (also known as Filmways Pictures and Filmways Television) was a television and film production company founded by American film executive Martin Ransohoff and Edwin Kasper in 1952. It is probably best remembered as the production c ...
for
Columbia Pictures Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc., Trade name, doing business as Columbia Pictures, is an American film Production company, production and Film distributor, distribution company that is the flagship unit of the Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group ...
, after '' 10 Rillington Place'' (1971). Fleischer described the film "sheer entertainment" made "to scare the hell out of audiences". The film was shot on location in
Berkshire Berkshire ( ; abbreviated ), officially the Royal County of Berkshire, is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Oxfordshire to the north, Buckinghamshire to the north-east, Greater London ...
, England. It premiered in the United States on 2 September 1971, and was released in England two weeks later. Though a box-office disappointment in the United States, the film received some praise from film critics, particularly for Farrow's lead performance. Clemens received an
Edgar Allan Poe Award The Edgar Allan Poe Awards, popularly called the Edgars, are presented every year by the Mystery Writers of America which is based in New York City. Named after American writer Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1849), a pioneer in the genre, the awards honor ...
nomination for Best Screenplay.


Plot

After being blinded in a horse riding accident, Sarah visits her uncle's stately home. Out on a date with her boyfriend, Steve, she escapes the fate of her relatives, who are murdered at their home, along with the gardener, by a
psychotic In psychopathology, psychosis is a condition in which a person is unable to distinguish, in their experience of life, between what is and is not real. Examples of psychotic symptoms are delusions, hallucinations, and disorganized or incoher ...
killer. Sarah returns from her date and spends the night in the house, unaware that three of her family members' corpses are strewn in various rooms. Sarah eventually discovers the bodies. She is surprised to find Barker, who survived being shot and informs Sarah of what has happened. He also tells Sarah the killer is returning to retrieve a bracelet he left behind and directs her to where to locate it before succumbing to his injuries and dying. Sarah discovers the bracelet contains an engraved name on it, which she correctly assumes belongs to the killer. The killer returns to search for the lost bracelet. His face is only shown to the audience in the film's last scene, otherwise he is only shown from the knees down, wearing jeans and distinctive leather boots. He discovers Sarah, who manages to flee on horseback into the woods, where she meets and is saved by a family of
gypsies {{Infobox ethnic group , group = Romani people , image = , image_caption = , flag = Roma flag.svg , flag_caption = Romani flag created in 1933 and accepted at the 1971 World Romani Congress , ...
. When Sarah shows them the bracelet, they see the name "Jack" inscribed on it. This leads Tom, the head of the family, to conclude his brother, Jack, must be the murderer, as he was dating one of the murdered women from the estate. In an effort to save Jack, Tom pretends to take Sarah to the police but instead locks her in a secluded shed. His plan is to then round up the family and flee the area. Sarah escapes from the shed and is found by Steve, out searching for her. She tells him all she knows. Steve and his men leave Sarah at his house to recuperate and begin a search for the killer, who they assume is a
gypsy {{Infobox ethnic group , group = Romani people , image = , image_caption = , flag = Roma flag.svg , flag_caption = Romani flag created in 1933 and accepted at the 1971 World Romani Congress , po ...
. They come across the two gypsy brothers and are about to assault them when a frantic Jack explains that his brother suspected him of being the killer because of the name on the bracelet. However Jack insists he had nothing to do with it. They look at the bracelet again and see the name on it is actually "Jacko". Steve, upon learning the killer's real name, hurries away with his men. Back at his house it is revealed that Jacko is one of Steve's workers, left behind to guard Sarah. The killer, still searching for his lost bracelet, is stealthily going through the pockets of Sarah's clothes, left beside the tub while she is taking a bath. When she reaches for a towel she touches his hand. Both are momentarily startled, then Jacko attempts to drown Sarah in the bath. At the last possible moment, when it seems he has succeeded, Steve races in, just in time to save her.


Cast


Production


Development

Interviewed in 1997, writer
Brian Clemens Brian Horace Clemens (30 July 1931 – 10 January 2015) was an English screenwriter and television producer. He worked on the British TV series '' The Avengers'' and created '' The New Avengers'' and '' The Professionals''. Early life Clemen ...
recalled that he wrote the script "
on spec ''On Spec'' is a digest-sized, perfect-bound, Canadian quarterly magazine publishing stories and poetry in science fiction, fantasy, and allied genres broadly grouped under the "speculative fiction" umbrella. History and profile Based in Edmo ...
" and
Columbia Pictures Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc., Trade name, doing business as Columbia Pictures, is an American film Production company, production and Film distributor, distribution company that is the flagship unit of the Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group ...
told him: "'Well, if Mia Farrow plays the lead, we'll buy it,' and she read it and liked it, and so they bought it and we shot it." Director
Richard Fleischer Richard Owen Fleischer (; December 8, 1916 – March 25, 2006) was an American film director. His career spanned more than four decades, beginning at the height of the Golden Age of Hollywood and lasting through the American New Wave. He was the ...
said Clemens "gave us a good story, a very workable one for a director, if tough on the star." Farrow's casting was confirmed in September 1970. It marked Farrow's first film since the birth of her twins in February 1970. She was paid a sum of $200,000 for her role in the film, as well as ten percent of the film's profits. The film was a co-production of interests from the United Kingdom and the United States, with the British
Filmways Filmways, Inc. (also known as Filmways Pictures and Filmways Television) was a television and film production company founded by American film executive Martin Ransohoff and Edwin Kasper in 1952. It is probably best remembered as the production c ...
producing under the American Columbia Pictures' distribution. Fleischer had just made '' 10 Rillington Place'' (1971) for the same producers, Martin Ransohodd and Leslie Linder. The film originally had the working title ''Buff''. Farrow visited a hospital for the blind as part of her research, and used special contact lenses during the shoot to help convey blindness. She also took equestrian lessons under stuntman
Max Faulkner Herbert Gustavus Max Faulkner, OBE (29 July 1916 – 26 February 2005) was an English professional golfer who won the Open Championship in 1951. Early life Faulkner was born on 29 July 1916 in Bexhill-on-Sea, the son of Gus (1893–1976), ...
to learn to properly ride a horse.


Filming

Filming took place entirely on location in
Berkshire Berkshire ( ; abbreviated ), officially the Royal County of Berkshire, is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Oxfordshire to the north, Buckinghamshire to the north-east, Greater London ...
,
England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...
, with a mainly British cast and crew.
Principal photography Principal photography is the phase of producing a film or television show in which the bulk of shooting takes place, as distinct from the phases of pre-production and post-production. Personnel Besides the main film personnel, such as the ...
began in early November 1970. Some filming took place in
Wokingham Wokingham ( ) is a market town and civil parish in Berkshire, England. It is the main administrative centre of the wider Borough of Wokingham. At the 2021 census the parish had a population of 38,284 and the wider built-up area had a populati ...
.


Music

The original music score was composed by
André Previn André George Previn (; born Andreas Ludwig Priwin; April 6, 1929 – February 28, 2019) was a German-American pianist, composer, and conductor. His career had three major genres: Hollywood films, jazz, and classical music. In each he achieved ...
, who was married to Farrow at the time. Producer Leslie Linder disliked it and hired David Whitaker to write a new score. This was also thrown out and Elmer Bernstein was hired to write the music. Fleischer says what happened was after the film was completed they changed the "opening titles of the picture to give it more social significance". They wanted Previn to alter the music score but he was away in Russia. As Previn's contract said his music could not be altered, Flesicher claims they had to throw it out. Previn had a different version of the story.


Release

''See No Evil'' was theatrically released in the United States on 2 September 1971, premiering at
Radio City Music Hall Radio City Music Hall (also known as Radio City) is an entertainment venue and Theater (structure), theater at 1260 Sixth Avenue (Manhattan), Avenue of the Americas, within Rockefeller Center, in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York C ...
in New York City. It opened in London on 17 September 1971 under the title ''Blind Terror''.


Home media

Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment released ''See No Evil'' on
VHS VHS (Video Home System) is a discontinued standard for consumer-level analog video recording on tape cassettes, introduced in 1976 by JVC. It was the dominant home video format throughout the tape media period of the 1980s and 1990s. Ma ...
on 5 July 1995. Columbia TriStar later released the film on
DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for digital video disc or digital versatile disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any ki ...
in North America in 2003. In the United Kingdom, Indicator Films issued a
Blu-ray Blu-ray (Blu-ray Disc or BD) is a digital optical disc data storage format designed to supersede the DVD format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released worldwide on June 20, 2006, capable of storing several hours of high-defin ...
and DVD release on 25 September 2017.


Reception


Box office

Its theatrical release in the United States was "a
box office disappointment A box-office bomb is a film that is unprofitable or considered highly unsuccessful during its theatrical run. Although any film for which the combined production budget, marketing, and distribution costs exceed the revenue after release has te ...
".


Critical response

''See No Evil'' was met with mixed reviews from film critics.
Roger Greenspun Roger Greenspun (December 16, 1929 – June 18, 2017) was an American journalist and film critic, best known for his work with ''The New York Times'' in which he reviewed near 400 films, particularly in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and for '' ...
of ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
'' wrote: ''
Variety Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...
'' called it "a perfect modern specimen of the old-style A-plus suspense programmer which often broke through to the big time... Superbly written... brilliantly photographed," while ''
The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...
'' called it "a simple exercise in suspense" that is "effective in only a purely mechanical way." "For sheer suspense", wrote ''
The Palm Beach Post ''The Palm Beach Post'' is an American daily newspaper serving Palm Beach County in South Florida, and parts of the Treasure Coast. On March 18, 2018, in a deal worth US$42.35 million, ''The Palm Beach Post'' and '' The Palm Beach Daily News' ...
'', it "may well be without peer", but, while praising the performance of Farrow, considered the "fiendish gamut" of injury her character is subjected to could "only be called sadism." Jim Meyer of the ''
Miami Herald The ''Miami Herald'' is an American daily newspaper owned by McClatchy, The McClatchy Company and headquartered in Miami-Dade County, Florida. Founded in 1903, it is the fifth-largest newspaper in Florida, serving Miami-Dade, Broward County, Fl ...
'' also described the film as "sadistic", but praised its realism, particularly in reference to Farrow's portrayal of a blind person. Kevin Thomas of the ''
Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of new ...
'' heralded Farrow's "tour-de-force" performance in a role "ideally suited for her gifts in expressing great vulnerability matched by fierce spirit," as well as praising Fleischer's direction, which he felt maintains "a pace so breakneck that there's simply no time to think about whether something is believable or not." Donald Miller of the ''
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette The ''Pittsburgh Post-Gazette'', also known simply as the PG, is the largest newspaper serving Greater Pittsburgh, metropolitan Pittsburgh in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. Descended from the ''Pittsburgh Gazette'', established in 1786 as the fi ...
'' uniformly praised the cast, as well as the film's use of autumnal English country locations and its pacing. ''
The Oregon Journal ''The Oregon Journal'' was Portland, Oregon's daily afternoon newspaper from 1902 to 1982. The ''Journal'' was founded in Portland by C. S. "Sam" Jackson, publisher of Pendleton, Oregon's ''East Oregonian'' newspaper, after a group of Portla ...
''s Arnold Marks also praised Farrow's performance and the use of locations, deeming the film a "good shocker."


Retrospective

Later reviewers have described the film as a "creepy, atmospheric thriller", in the style of Terence Young's 1967 film '' Wait Until Dark'', while critic John Derry highlights the way
Mia Farrow Maria de Lourdes Villiers "Mia" Farrow ( ; born February 9, 1945) is an American actress. She first gained notice for her role as Allison MacKenzie in the television soap opera ''Peyton Place (TV series), Peyton Place'' and gained further recogn ...
is presented "from the first moment" as "the obvious victim". Film historian
John Kenneth Muir John Kenneth Muir (born December 3, 1969) is an American literary critic. As of 2022, he has written thirty reference books in the fields of film and television, with a particular focus on the horror and science fiction genres. Biography Bor ...
praised the film in his book ''Horror Films of the 1970s'' (2007), calling it "sadistic" and "one of those movies that is so successful at creating empathy for its star (and in expressing her limited point of view) that it becomes anxiety provoking."


Accolades


Proposed remake

In April 2016, it was reported that
Screen Gems Screen Gems is an American film production company owned by Sony Pictures Entertainment, a subsidiary of Japanese conglomerate, Sony Group Corporation. ''Screen Gems'' has served several different purposes for its parent companies over the de ...
was developing a remake of the film written by Mike Scannell, with
Bryan Bertino Bryan Michael Bertino (born October 17, 1977) is an American filmmaker. He is best known as the writer/director of '' The Strangers'' (2008), as well as writing its sequel, '' The Strangers: Prey at Night'' (2018), with Ben Ketai. Early life an ...
co-producing the project. , the project has gone undeveloped.


See also

*
List of films featuring home invasions There is a body of films that feature home invasions. Paula Marantz Cohen says, "Such films reflect an increased fear of the erosion of distinctions between private and public space... These films also reflect a sense that the outside world is mo ...


References


Sources

* * * *


External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:See No Evil 1971 films 1971 horror films 1971 crime drama films American horror drama films American horror thriller films American psychological horror films American psychological thriller films British horror drama films British horror thriller films British psychological drama films British psychological horror films British psychological thriller films Columbia Pictures films Crime horror films Fictional representations of Romani people Films about blind people Films set in England Films shot in England Films directed by Richard Fleischer Films scored by Elmer Bernstein Films set in country houses Films about home invasion Filmways films 1970s American films 1970s British films 1970s English-language films 1970s psychological thriller films English-language horror films English-language crime drama films English-language thriller films