Thursday 4 August 2016

Afraid of the Dark (1991)

My wife is partially blind. It's a neurological blindness rather than ocular, so her eyes work perfectly well but her brain only interprets the signals for her left field of vision, leaving her completely blind on her right-hand side. Anyway, a few years back I thought that I would try a simple task whilst completely blind. I tightly closed my eyes, got up from the sofa and walked into the kitchen to make a cup of coffee. I have rarely felt so afraid and confused. Is that the coffee jar or the sugar jar? How do I know when the spoon has coffee in it? How do I know when the spoon full of coffee in over the mug? How do I know when the kettle spout is above the mug and how do I know when the mug is full and not overflowing? Somehow I managed without burning myself, walked back to the sofa and drank the coffee with my eyes still closed. 20 minutes of blindness. 20 minutes of fear. Try it sometime, it'll really open your eyes. This film perfectly captures that feeling.

Afraid of the Dark features a top-notch list of British actors (James Fox, Paul McGann, David Thewlis, Rosalind Knight, Hilary Mason, Sheila Burrell, Robert Stephens, and ...drum roll... Catriona MacColl!). Terrific!

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