Atmospheric psychological thriller has Perkins ideally cast as the brooding music lecturer, left psychosomatically blinded after he witnesses his father perish in a house fire, which also disfigures his elder sister (Harris). After spending eight months in a mental hospital he returns to the house and is cared for by his sister, but his recovery is hampered by the presence of a suspicious boarder who comes and goes under cloak of darkness, and who Perkins is convinced, is trying to kill him.
It's sometimes tense and gripping, though the small-scale TV treatment confines the plot to strictly minor status. Hackett co-stars as the kindly neighbour, keen to help Perkins emerge from his deteriorating psychosis, while Kent Smith has a bit part as the once-feared patriarch, favoured by Harris but with whom Perkins' relationship was strained.
Provokes an occasional shiver, but it's still a very timid tale that relies too much on the wind machines and 'dark, stormy night' routine, a consequence (but not necessarily an excuse) perhaps of the TV budget. There's a throwback moment to "Psycho" at the film's climax which might bring a smile to your face if you know what to look for, while the distinguished cast deliver their dialogue with stage-born professionalism and the overall result is a modest time-filler with potential.
It's sometimes tense and gripping, though the small-scale TV treatment confines the plot to strictly minor status. Hackett co-stars as the kindly neighbour, keen to help Perkins emerge from his deteriorating psychosis, while Kent Smith has a bit part as the once-feared patriarch, favoured by Harris but with whom Perkins' relationship was strained.
Provokes an occasional shiver, but it's still a very timid tale that relies too much on the wind machines and 'dark, stormy night' routine, a consequence (but not necessarily an excuse) perhaps of the TV budget. There's a throwback moment to "Psycho" at the film's climax which might bring a smile to your face if you know what to look for, while the distinguished cast deliver their dialogue with stage-born professionalism and the overall result is a modest time-filler with potential.