It is learned in primary school that the five senses — sight, hearing, touch, smell, and taste — play a vital part in how people perceive the world. Children are taught to be aware of their surroundings by using all the senses, but when it comes down to which of the senses are superior, sight and hearing usually come in as the first two choices. Now, imagine if one or both of these senses were taken away. It is not the end of the world, but how one takes in the world is significantly altered. Even further, imagine being in a life-threatening horror movie situation. That, on top of the loss of a vital sense, is terrifying. Filmmakers caught on to this heightened horror and have been running with the idea for quite some time.
The representation of the Deaf Community and individuals with impaired vision has significantly increased. The use of the missing or weakened sense has been utilized in the horror industry to make audiences feel an added threat to the already suspenseful film. Check out the scariest horror movies that make full use of depriving a character of one of their five senses below.
MOVIEWEB VIDEO OF THE DAY
8 See No Evil (1971)
Columbia Pictures
Sarah (Mia Farrow) goes blind as an adult after a riding incident in See No Evil. Not only does she now have to navigate the world around her in an unfamiliar way, she puts herself in a whole new environment when she moves in with her aunt, uncle, and cousin. As she is determined to continue living as “normal” as possible, Sarah goes on a date with her ex-fiance. While she is out, a man goes into the house and murders the three family members. It is when Sarah returns to the house, not knowing the fate of her family, that the sense of vulnerability and uneasiness sets in with the audience.
MOVIEWEB VIDEO OF THE DAY
MOVIEWEB VIDEO OF THE DAY
MOVIEWEB VIDEO OF THE DAY
People watching the screen can see the bodies splayed out across the house and the pools of blood beside them. However, Sarah is not privy to this visual. She walks by the bodies, begins to run a bath with hear dead uncle in the tub, and is utterly unaware of what is just feet away from her. When she does eventually discover the horrifying reality, Sarah has to rely on her ability to seek help, trust strangers, and escape the killer herself. The concept is horrifying, and for horror cinema in the 70s, See No Evil is phenomenal.
7 Orphan
Dark Castle Entertainment
In Orphan, Aryana Engineer (Max) was born partially deaf, which makes her signing and reactions more authentic. Max is portrayed as an innocent and angelic child who instantly wins over the hearts of the audience. She is full of smiles and excitement when she learns she has a new adopted sister, Esther. That immediate love turns around when Max is taken under the wing of her psychotic and murderous new family member. Upon witnessing Ester kill a pigeon and later being forced to help hide a bloodied body, Max feels defenseless against her sister.
It is every parents’ nightmare that their child will be taken advantage of at some point, and between Max’s age and disability, she becomes an easy target for Esther. The premise of this horror movie combined with the plot twist no one expected is actually based on a true story. However, adding in a sweet and loving deaf child who is victimized, increases the intensity of the audience wanting the villain to perish.
6 Blindness
Fox Film do Brasil
The tables for sighted-people turn with the majority of the characters in Blindness being blind. A city is plagued by a sort of blindness, and those who were first affected are rushed into an abandoned hospital to quarantine. One woman, known as the doctor’s wife, is the only person who is unaffected by the disease. She does not let others, other than her husband, know that. It does not take long before chaos ensues when a man, who happens to find a gun, decides to withhold food from the other sections.
From the lack of government aid to the obvious challenges that come with a whole group on edge from their new sightless lifestyle, audiences are forced to think the standard, “What would I do in this situation?” Blindness reminds people how much of a privilege it is to see. Though the doctor’s wife is isolated with her ability, she still has an advantage over the masses surrounding her and is eventually able to lead her newfound family to safety.
5 Don’t Breathe 1 & 2
Sony Pictures Releasing
Norman Nordstrom, played by Stephen Lang, is a blind war veteran in Don’t Breathe and Don’t Breathe 2, who has learned to live with his acquired disability. At the start of the first film, Nordstrom is being robbed by three delinquents. This would typically make an audience feel a sense of defenselessness or anger for Nordstrom. It is not until he pursues the three criminals that the audience recognizes that he is meant to be the villain of the story. Nordstrom is quickly made to be a lethal killer as he rightfully protects his valuables and refuses to be exploited for his condition.
In both films, Nordstrom gives himself an advantage by cutting the power when in pursuit of his victims. He says, “Now you’re going to see what I see,” in a threatening voice to let his victims know the playing field is far from level. Because Nordstrom is not made to be a character the audience empathizes with, his blindness does not depict him as helpless. Instead, his blindness adds to the suspense of whether his victims will make their escape.
4 Hush
Netflix
The term “deaf-mute” is typically seen as offensive in the Deaf Community (via NAD). The inability to hear, or hear very little, usually has nothing to do with the vocal cords being of use. In Maddie Young’s (Kate Siegel) case in Hush, however, the term is appropriate because her hearing as well as her vocal cords were affected by a case of meningitis when she was a child.
Maddie chooses to live in a house isolated in the woods for some much-needed writing time. From this alone, the standard horror movie equation has already been established: isolated, wooded area and being alone. The plot device that heightens this common scenario is that Maddie is completely deaf. While a killer taunts her through windows, cuts her power, and steals her phone, Maddie understands that the only way to survive is to kill her assailant. This indie thrasher-thriller film adopts and adjusts an overplayed situation, and it makes audiences root for a woman who is often viewed as helpless by society.
3 Sightless
MarVista Entertainment
Like See No Evil, Sightless starts off with the terrifying reality that any adult can undergo an accident or situation that leaves them visually impaired. After being attacked on the streets one evening, Ellen Ashland (Madelaine Petsch) is left legally blind. The struggles of simply navigating her apartment and trusting people prove to be a challenge. After feeling herself slip more and more into an isolated depression, Ellen attempts to kill herself by jumping from her apartment’s balcony.
To her surprise, when she wakes up, she discovers that she has been kidnaped this whole time by her “caretaker,” Clayton. Her apartment was not real. The multiple people whom she met were all played by him. The betrayal she feels is something audience members can really register. A woman, who was attacked and left blinded, is deceived by those she was supposed to trust the most. The reality of this situation is where the true horror resides.
2 Bird Box
Netflix
In Bird Box, Malorie Hayes (Sandra Bullock) lives in a post-apocalyptic world where an unseen entity causes people to want to kill themselves and others. The use of sight is highlighted in this film because if the individuals do not see the beings, then they are considerably safe. This results in closed curtains, the use of blindfolds, and the hesitation to trust any person. The fact that the characters are not blind, but must temporarily blind themselves during periods of time is nerve wracking especially when two children are involved.
As Malorie has to solely navigate her way down a river with two children to what they assume is safety, the audience is stuck watching every threat around them. When the three eventually make it to safety, it becomes so obvious why the community was spared the perils of the rest of the world. They are a community of blind individuals who permanently cannot see the entities. They live their lives without fear when the rest of the sighted-world had to drastically alter their lifestyles.
1 A Quiet Place 1 & 2
Paramount Pictures
This aspiring series, which so far includes A Quiet Place and A Quiet Place: Part II, deals with the challenges of both blindness and deafness. The alien creatures are blind with a heightened sense of hearing. Because the family of five has a deaf daughter, Regan Abbott (Millicent Simmonds), each character knows American Sign Language. This gives the family an advantage to be able to steadily communicate with one another while also remaining safe from the creatures.
Unfortunately, the disadvantage of being the deaf individual in this world is that Regan is completely unaware of the surrounding sounds. From her brother playing with a loud toy resulting in his death, creatures stalking Regan’s house behind her back, and the things that occur when Regan goes off on her own are all times Regan was unaware of her surrounds due to being deaf. The suspense that comes with the audience hearing what Regan cannot or the film going dead silent because the perspective is from Regan creates a new dynamic for this series.
