''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