On the first day of his school holidays, young Lucas (Ben Keyworth) accompanies his blind mother Miriam (Fanny Ardant) to the West London clinic where she teaches a knitting class. At the clinic, talk is of the vicious razor attack on one of the regular visitors by person unknown. Lucas's mother introduces her son to her pretty blind friend Rose (Clare Holman), with whom he forms an infatuation. The lad accompanies Rose to the studio of photographer Tony (Paul McGann), where she is to have her picture taken with her blind fiancé Jim (Jeremy Flynn).
Lucas wanders off and sneaks into a house, where he plays with matches and half-inches a telescope; through the bedroom window, he witnesses a second brutal razor attack on another blind woman. The chief superintendent in charge of the case is Lucas' father Frank (James Fox). Does his son hold the key to the identity of the slasher? Is the creepy window cleaner at the clinic (Struan Rodger) responsible for the attacks? Could it be Tony the photographer, who puts lipstick on graveyard statues? Or is leering locksmith Tom Miller (David Thewlis) behind the crimes?
Keeping schtum about what he has seen, Lucas continues his stroll through the neighbourhood, stopping at the local cemetery to visit his secret hideout in a mausoleum and to feed his canine pal Toby, after which he explores a railway tunnel. At the nearby station, a third victim feels the cold steel of a cut-throat razor. That night, Lucas sneaks out of bed to visit the graveyard where he spies on his neighbours with his telescope; there, he disturbs Tom Miller, who is also doing a spot of peeping. Lucas is chased by Miller, but escapes when Toby comes to the rescue.
Lucas continues to spy on the locals, peering through a window at shutterbug Tony, who has convinced Rose to pose topless for him. As the lad watches, Tony approaches Rose with a razor and starts to cut her legs; Lucas rushes to her rescue, stabbing the photographer in the eye with one of his mother's knitting needles. At which point the film pulls an about-face, yanking the rug from under the viewer's feet...
The movie cuts to Lucas in his bedroom. He is wearing glasses with thick lenses due to a condition that could lead to a total loss of sight unless he undergoes an operation (which could also leave him blind if it is not a success). His mother is no longer unable to see, and she is pregnant. Rose is now his sister, who is about to get married to Tony, and she can also see. His father is a florist.
Everything we have seen up until this point has been through the failing eyes of an 'unreliable narrator': a frightened, confused young boy facing a very uncertain future. The razor maniac terrorising the blind doesn't exist, and is most likely a manifestation of the boy's fear of going under the surgeon's knife. All of the menacing characters - Tony, Tom and the window cleaner - are, in reality, very friendly.
As his operation draws nearer, Lucas continues to slide deeper into an imaginary world where he is surrounded by the blind, and the only way to protect himself is with his trusty knitting needle. When a scared Lucas sees Toby at the window, he imagines the dog as a snarling rabid beast and stabs it in the head with his needle, and when his mother arrives home from hospital, Toby's fragile mental state puts the life of his new baby sister in danger.
Blurring the lines between reality and the imaginary, Afraid Of The Dark is an intelligent, challenging watch that keeps the viewer on their toes. The mid-film switcheroo seems to be a sticking point for some, but I loved the way the story suddenly changed without resorting to clumsy exposition: it's a brave move that has to be applauded. The second half of the film is a tense character study of very troubled boy, and Keyworth is superb in his role - utterly chilling as he covers up the crime of killing Toby, and then sets his sights on baby Tess. The film's finalé sees the infant being rescued before Lucas can do her any harm, followed by the operation on the boy's eyes, which is declared a success. Post-operation, Lucas appears to be back to normal, his fears having evaporated, but when he is giving sister Tess a cuddle at the end, it's hard not to think that the worst is yet to come...
7.5/10, rounded up to 8 for the cameos from Hilary Mason and Catriona MacColl, both of whom had previously played blind characters in cult horror films: Mason in Nicolas Roeg's Don't Look Now (1973) and MacColl in Lucio Fulci's The Beyond (1981).
