MartinHafer This is an early HBO production and has a rather impressive cast-- Richard Widmark and Keith Carradine in the leads.When the story begins, a maniac named Ed Vincent has butchered his family and compulsively arranged the bodies about the home---and even left a birthday hat on his murdered 5 year-old! Considered he not only killed his wife but his three kids, this is a case that really weighs heavily on Detective Joe Steiner (Widmark). However, despite looking for seven years, the case remains unsolved and Steiner retires from the police force. In the meantime, some man is involved in a horrible auto accident where they are completely disfigured. After being in the hospital many months, he's rebuilt by doctors and is ready for discharge. However, during this time, no one has been able to determine who he is...and the guy appears to have no idea who he is as well. He names himself Allen Devlin and eventually he gets married and has some kids...and appears to be leading a rather normal life.Steiner has refused to let the old case die and follows a lead taking him to the guy in the accident. Perhaps this was Ed Vincent...though after all the plastic surgery, it doesn't look like Vincent. So Steiner digs a bit deeper and even approaches Devlin to tell him his suspicions. At this point, Devlin is willing to listen...and wonders if perhaps he IS Ed Vincent. So, Devlin begins to investigate on his own...to see if anything can link him to the monster, Ed Vincent. What's next in this suspense film? Well, a weird masked man begins assaulting women...and it looks a lot like a case that coincided with the disappearance of Ed Vincent.As far as suspense films go, this one provides a lot of suspense. It also keeps you guessing and has a lot of misdirection to keep confusing the audience (in a good way). Excellent acting and a film worth seeing.

Aaron1375 I saw this is one of those movies that is only going to be really good the first time it is watched. It has a bit of mystery to it, that while not to hard to figure out is kind of one of those plot devices that makes the movie less watchable when you know it. Still, this made for television movie is rather good for a television movie though I think that is more because it was in fact HBO that made it so it could be a bit more risqué than one made on one of the major networks. The story has a person killing their families at the beginning of the movie, he then proceeds to hitchhike and ends up in a car wreck where both bodies are horribly disfigured. One of them survives though and you are left wondering who did in fact survive, the killer or the guy just giving him a lift. Easy enough question if you ask me as what kind of movie would it be if the killer got killed. If that is not reason enough to easily figure it out, the rape that occurs midway through the movie should remove all doubts. Still it plays out pretty good and is enjoyable to watch as everything comes together.

ed4evr I think that many of the complaints leveled against this movie are mostly due to the fact that it is similar to the theatrically-released film "Jagged Edge". Because "Blackout" was made for television and because most people saw "Jagged Edge" first, "Blackout" is seen as derivative. Nothing could be further from the truth. If anything, "Blackout" is the superior film, in my opinion. The performances are wonderful. Quinlan & Carradine give the best performances of their careers & Widmark was one of the best actors ever, bar none. Because the solutions to the crimes are similar in both movies, "Blackout" suffers by comparison. If "Blackout" had been released theatrically a few months earlier, nobody would remember "Jagged Edge" now.

gridoon "Blackout" is a decent, fairly well-done thriller, made for TV. Although the idea of an amnesiac hero is as old as the movies themselves, the film offers a few insights into the situation and wonders how responsible an amnesiac is for crimes that he may (or may not) have commited in his past life. The film plays like a murder mystery and mostly succeeds in keeping you interested. However, it doesn't rise above mediocrity, because many plot elements are overly familiar.