Afraid of the Dark (1991)

Synopsis (MAJOR SPOILERS! DON'T READ IT IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN THE FILM): The first 30 minutes or so of the movie show a young boy whose mother and half-sister are both blind; there is a mad man hurting - and sometimes killing? I don't remember - blind women with a razor; the boy wanders around in his neighborhood spying on people; several creepy characters such as the locksmith, the window washer, or his half-sister's fiancé look like they could be the killer. Halfway to the movie we get to know that this was all in the boy's imagination. The fact is, there is no blind person in the movie; the boy himself is losing his eyesight and will go blind if he doesn't go through an operation. His mother is pregnant and delivers a girl on the same day his half-sister gets married. Every time the boy takes off his thick glasses he hallucinates. At one time he pictures a friendly dog as a menacing one and pierces his eye with a knitting needle, killing him. When his newborn sister comes home, he kidnaps her to the cemetery, holding one knitting needle in his hand. The whole truth about the boy's condition then dawns upon his stepfather, who finds his baby daughter is missing and goes after the boy. Next thing we see, the boy has just undergone the operation and is fine. We learn that the baby was rescued safe and sound.
Synopsis: Psychological (perhaps psychiatrical would be a better term to describe it) thriller that is quite atmospheric in the first third, then goes through a plot twist and then goes nowhere. There is some symbolism into the story (blind people = the boy is being neglected, or becomes "invisible"), and it surely gives the film a certain depth, but there is some gratuitousness to the events which prevents it from becoming more than an exercise without much weight or consequence.
Rating: 42