This is a horror film in the mould of a killer tormenting a girl with a disability. It has been done before, from way back when – Audrey Hebpurn’s Wait Until Dark is an example.
In this case, the story is tense and so compelling that two Indian films have been done as a remake – The Tamil film Kolaiyudhir Kaalam and the Hindi film Khamoshi.
This is the story of one day in the life of a deaf woman Maddie who lives alone in a remote location. The film opens with her neighbour Sarah (this being American suburbia, she lives quite a distance away) visiting her. We learn that Maddie lost her hearing in her childhood due to a botched operation after Meningitis and that she wants to be an author. She also says that she has ideas with various scenes always running in her head and she chooses one that is appropriate. Of course all this has relevance for later.
Sarah came to return a book Maddie had lent her and then she goes off. Maddie tries to write some more of the story but is hungry. As she is cooking, Sarah runs to the French window, and we see a masked man pursuing her and he kills her as she raps on the window for help. He realizes from Maddie’s total lack of reaction that she is deaf and decides that there is an easy kill waiting there too. (I don’t think they either explained who the killer is and why he was trying to kill Sarah, or else I was not paying enough attention. We have to assume that he is a crazed psychopathic serial killer)
We see that Sarah has a cat (we already feel sorry for it since we know what happens in these kind of movies to small animals) and the door is left open for it to go and come when it pleases. The killer decides to have some fun with her. He comes in, steals her cell and then takes some pictures of her from behind. He then goes out and sends her the picture. She now knows there is someone stalking her. He ostenteously slashes the tires of her car in full view so that she cannot escape.
Maddie writes on the window that she has not seen his face (as he is masked) and that she will not say anything – she does not yet know her friend was killed. An intelligent move in this kind of a movie. He then simply takes the mask off and shows her his face. She now knows that he will not leave without killing her now.
She is a very spirited woman and then distracts him by throwing a metal object from the roof and then try to escape the other way. She is unfortunately seen by the killer who climbs up the roof and shoots her in the leg with an arrow from the crossbow he has with him. She, however, manages to knock him off and escapes back inside, with the crossbow.
With her leg hampered and with her disability and with blood loss, we think that she is done.
Then John, the boyfriend of Sarah shows up. He is a burly man, and the killer in a blue uniform like dress pretends to be a policeman. However, Sarah’s ear ring, fallen on the ground alerts John to the fact that something is wrong. As he plays it cool and says that the key is under a big boulder, Maddie inadvertantly distracts him from inside her house porch, allowing the killer to stab him with a knife and John simply bleeds to death before the horrified eyes of Maddie.
The whole movie is a cat and mouse game of a gritty and determined Maddie pitted against a cunning killer. She repeatedly gets battered and escapes by the skin of her teeth. The movie is tense right up to the end.
All ends well and (hope this is not a spoiler for you), the cat is found safe too.
Great movie, nice to watch and a good entertainer, even if the plot has been seen multiple times before.
8/10
– – Krishna
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