EDITOR’S NOTE: Blindfold: Acts of Obsession was on USA Up All Night on May 27, 1994; April 27, 1996; March 7, 1997 and August 2, 1997.
Premiering originally on the USA Network in 1994 before crossing the pond to Channel 4 in the UK in 1995, Lawrence L. Simeone’s Blindfold: Acts of Obsession stands tall as a prime slice of prime-time sleaze and suspense that brought the heat straight to the living room.
Madeleine Dalton (Shannen Doherty) is trapped in a stagnant marriage with real estate broker Mike Dalton (Michael Woods). Looking to inject a little lightning back into her domestic routine, she takes the advice of her psychiatrist, Dr. Jennings (Judd Nelson), and dives headfirst into sexual games involving handcuffs and blindfolds. Yes, always those blindfolds.
While Madeleine explores these new realms of sensory deprivation, a terror is gripping Santa Monica. A brutal serial killer is stalking the city, striking down women using the exact same signature: blindfolded, handcuffed and finished off with a switchblade.
Making things extra complicated, Madeleine’s sister, Chris Madigan (Kristian Alfonso), is a hard-working police officer on the case who starts looking suspiciously at Dr. Jennings.
Dare I say that this is a giallo?
Art famously imitated life during the production of this film in 1993. Shannen Doherty and Judd Nelson struck up a real-life romance on set, resulting in a whirlwind engagement in 1994.
Director Simeone also wrote the David Prior movie Raw Nerve before writing and directing his old films Presumed Guilty, Cop-Out, Eyes of the Beholder, The Gifted and Go Fish. Oh yeah — two episodes of Power Rangers Turbo, too. According to IMDb, “Larry Simeone was the 1954-1955 March of Dimes Poster Child as a result of contracting Polio as an infant and initially being misdiagnosed. Because of this, he spent his entire life battling illness, which culminated in heart surgery he was unable to survive. He was skilled with electronics, music, and science, but had a penchant and deep love for theatre and film.”
As for me, this has a blink-and-miss-it cameo by Tara Buckman, who is a barmaid.
This movie probably exists only so that the male gaze can masturbate to Shannon Doherty. It’s one of those erotic thrillers that wants to be kinky yet shames you for watching it, as Doherty’s character gets into BDSM and, of course, everyone involved is aberrant. They can’t just be adults that enjoy their own sex games; one of them is a killer. There’s an R-rated and unrated version for VHS, so the real answer is that as long as someone can make money, morals don’t matter.
You can watch this on YouTube.
