The general idea behind Mischief Night seems to be "home invasion, but the person at home is blind." And that's not a horrible idea, as long as it's well-executed. And Mischief Night mostly is. It sort of undercuts its own basic premise by having most of the third act revolve around a sighted person - it's almost like they liked the blind-victim concept but couldn't come up with a satisfactory way to wrap things up without resorting to a more generic finale. Regardless, it's mostly well-done, has good lead performances, and does what needs to be done to make it an adequate home invasion flick.
Emily (Noell Coet) is a high-schooler who suffers from psychosomatic blindness (i.e. doctors cannot find anything physically wrong and believe it's a mental block thing). She blames herself for her mother's death 10 years ago - she was in the car when her mother crashed it and died. She has just moved into a new house with her father, and it's really nice. There's tons of space, a nice open layout, and isolated from any neighbors. As we find out in the prologue, it also happens to be a really nice spot for a murderer to break in undetected. Apparently, there's some masked guy who likes to break into this house on Mischief night and murder people. Mischief Night, for those of you not in the know (like me), is the night before Halloween where people go out and cause mischief (TP-ing, egging, flaming bags of poo on the front steps - generally not murder).
Anyways, Emily has been encouraging her father to get on with his life by starting to date again, and tonight is the night of his first date. Her dad is a little hesitant leaving her alone in a new house that she isn't used to, but Emily insists. Plus, she's got her boyfriend Cory to call on if she needs any help. So dad takes off, and sure enough, the masked intruder (looking like a lesser member of Slipknot in a rain jacket) breaks in, realizes Emily is blind, and toys with her accordingly. Horrific shenanigans ensue.
Mischief Night uses this relatively unique setup (Emily being blind) to its advantage. Director Richard Schenkman wrings a lot of tension out of scenes where Emily is in a room, and the killer is just standing there unbeknownst to her. It's generally well-shot and unsettling - they probably go back to that well a *little* too often, but I can see why. These moments represent the best the film has to offer in terms of tension, as Emily is completely vulnerable. You also get some decent gore in the film too. There isn't an overwhelming amount of it, but what you get works. And there is one cheer-worthy moment towards the end that leaves you with a good taste in your mouth.
But the setup sort of hampers the film in a way as well. Emily can only be tormented so much - plus, the killer is silent, so he can't even harass her verbally. It's just noises and the occasional creepy touch. And having just one victim around to torment gets boring after awhile. They get around it by having random people show up, very obviously just to get killed. It feels a little forced.
Also, I would have liked a little more backstory on our masked killer. Other than "it's mischief night," we never really get any reason behind why this guy does what he does. I can swing "he just is" as a reason if there's a supernatural feel to things, but this is going for a grittier, real-world feel. Even just a line from him would've been nice. And he isn't consistent either. Sometimes, he'll kill a person, sometimes just tie them up, sometimes he'll set up a little trap. I like a little regularity in my homicidal maniacs, thank you very much.
I dug the acting too. Oddly enough, this is the second film I've watched recently (the other being the solid Late Phases) where the protagonist is blind. I thought Noell Coet did a good job as Emily. I've said it before, a blind character would be a tough role to pull of, but she was certainly convincing to me. It was easy to connect with her character, and she gets to show off a wide range of emotions here.
Overall, it's a decent enough film. I don't watch a ton of home invasion flicks, and I don't know if fans of that sub genre would react as well as I did. There aren't an awful lot of surprises, and there isn't quite as much peril as I was expecting. Mischief Night just felt a little undercooked to me - they do some good things with the basic premise, but never anything exceptional with it. It kind of aims high and just never quite gets there. Still, it works as a pleasant diversion and was a little better than I expected.
I would more or less recommend this film.
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