It was OK. I don't see why everyone loves it so much. It wasn't very smart or deep or well-directed.

As somebody who had not heard any of this before, it became a curious phenomenon to sit and watch a film and slowly have the realities begin to click into place.

Amazing worth wacthing. So good. Biased but well made with many good points.

There's a more than satisfactory amount of boom-boom in the movie's trim running time.

A man murders his wife and children during a birthday part in Ohio, sets up their battered bodies like dolls, and disappears. The detective in charge of the case, Widmark, is so revolted by the scene that he becomes obsessed and determines to track down the vanished husband.Meanwhile, we see a car crash on a highway in Washington state. There are two men in the car. One is burned beyond recognition; the other is Keith Carradine, so bashed up that he must undergo extensive cosmetic surgery and winds up spending so much time in the hospital that he and his nurse, Quinlan, fall in love and are married. Carradine, though he is able to become a successful businessman, can remember nothing of his past.Years go by. Widmark has been forced into retirement. Then he receives an anonymous newspaper clipping that leads him to Carradine in Washington. Widmark meets Carradine, pokes around, and convinces himself that Carradine is the disgusting murderer from Ohio, only he can't prove it. Widmark believes that somewhere inside the successful businessman is a family murderer trying to get out. On his part, Carradine is disturbed by the accusation and does what he can to prove his innocence. Only occasionally does he drop a hint or two of instability.The local police captain, Michael Beck, is a former lover of Quinlan's and it develops that he still has a fierce yen for her. He's built a kind of shrine to her in his bedroom. Would he like to get Carradine out of the way and get it on with Quinlan again? You bet he would.Evidence accumulates until there are now three suspects of crimes and other acts that all point towards Carradine. Perhaps Widmark is right and Carradine can't entirely control his inner rage. Or the police captain, still in love with his ex paramour, may be trying to frame Carradine. Even Widmark, so convinced of Carradine's guilt, may be trying to frame him in order to put him away.It's a nice set up with a lot of promise. I hate to say it but, what with all that inner and outer guilt, it's the kind of story that Hitchcock could have handled with aplomb. (All that's missing is the domineering mother.) As it stands, and I hate to say this too, it's a little flat because it's all done rather carelessly. The tinny musical score, with its electronic organ, sounds like it's ripped off from a cheap Italian sex movie. The direction is flat. During the last half, the writers lose the thread of the mystery and have thrown in some junk about hidden masks, serial rapists, and so forth. There are also chintz scenes of women in danger entering dark rooms, hooded figures appearing from the shadows.The first half of the film is quite nicely done. And then, like the killer himself, it descends into the vulgate.

Blackout starts out with us seeing a family who have been murdered. Two kids and their mother slain by the man of the house Ed Vincent. We then see a car get into a wreck, flipping over and burning in flames. Two men were in that car, one being a random person and the other being the killer of the family. Only one survives, and he is horribly disfigured so there is no way of telling if he is the murderer. The disfigured man also has no memory of who he is. Anyways, the man (with the name Allen Devlin) falls for his nurse Chris, and the two get together. Fast forward six years and see that the police officer Joe Steiner who was in charge of the investigation is still hung up on the fact that the killer was never caught. Pretty someone starts tipping off Joe that Allen might really be Ed...A psychopath begins stalking women in town...Chris begins getting calls from a man saying he's Ed and that's he's coming to kill her...is Allen really the crazed Ed Vincent, or is this stalker someone completely different?I enjoyed Blackout a lot. It was a made for TV movie on HBO, and it plays out like a cop/crime drama. It has its slow parts, but for the most part keeps viewers on the edge. There's a very sad element to the movie as well as we see a six year marriage start to crumble because of the possibility that Allen is Ed. Kathleen Quinlan puts in a great job as the wife. The special effects for the disfigured face were amazing! We get some up close shots of an eyeball sticking out, as well as burnt skin. Some of the stalking scenes were down well too, especially because of the killer's mask. As you see on the cover of the VHS, it's a leather mask which works very well.Overall 'Blackout' is a top notch suspense/horror/crime movie that I recommend. It has a good story and kept me interested the whole way through. The ending is great too, both devastating yet satisfying. Pick it up if you can!7/10

Superior TV film opens with a murdered mother and her kids set up as if they were celebrating the youngest's birthday, which was when the murders took place. The father/husband, Ed Vincent, is missing and assumed the culprit. Detective Steiner (Richard Widmark) becomes obsessed with finding Vincent. Meanwhile, a guy picks up a hitcher only to wreck shortly thereafter. One man dies, the other (Keith Carradine) has no memory and needs facial reconstruction surgery. The survivor eventually recovers and marries his nurse (Kathleen Quinlan). Years later, a still obsessed Steiner receives an anonymous tip in the form of a newspaper clipping. He's thus led to believe that the survivor is in fact Ed Vincent, and sets out to be sure.Great film, I really enjoyed it. Supported by a strong cast, the characters are all fleshed out and feel real. The film also plays with your expectations, turning them around time and time again. This in turn ratchets up the tension. There are some creepy moments as well, like sinister phone calls and the scenes with the zipper-faced maniac on the prowl. Speaking of that, I loved the mask, and wished it had been used more. It comes off too soon during the finale. Two other minor quibbles: I didn't find Quinlan's character sympathetic, and there's one bothersome contrivance involving a radio towards the end.Highly recommended film with a strong central theme.

I'm surprised anyone would fail to enjoy this movie. This movie keeps you in a constant state of bewilderment, is this guy a good family man or a brutal serial killer. The beginning has a man kill his entire family and then head out in the the family car, along the way he picks up a hitchhiker and soon thereafter are involved in a horrendous accident. Only one of the two survive and because of the fire involved in the crash they cannot be sure which of the 2 men survived. This surviving man seems to be a good person and seems to have little memory of his life. He goes on to marry and begin a family, but is he the killer or not? In the end the answer comes to light.