Summary :
When the world is under attack from terrifying creatures who hunt their human prey by sound, 16-year old Ally Andrews, who lost her hearing at 13, and her family seek refuge in a remote haven.
Genre :
Thriller/Horror
Country :
Germany
Cast :
Stanley Tucci : Hugh AndrewsKiernan Shipka : Ally Andrews
Miranda Otto : Kelly Andrews
Director :
John R. Leonetti
Film Review : The Silence
What the hell does that mean?
“Don’t make noise.”
There are still certainties in this world. First of all, you can expect that if a type of movie has enormous success, something similar will appear in no time. A matter of surfing on the wave of success, I guess. “The Silence” resembles, for instance, the successful film “A Quiet Place“. It’s not exactly the same thing, but there are a huge number of similarities with the latter (And yes I know both films were made almost simultaneously and it’s based on a novel from 2015. But still!). And then it appears once again that humans are the cause of problems. So this time no space monsters with a sophisticated hearing organ, like in “A Quiet Place“. Now there are some over-enthusiastic speleologists who can’t resist sticking their noses into something out of curiosity. In particular, a cave that they have discovered. Cries of joy are quickly replaced by cries of fear and hysterical whining, the moment they break through the cave wall. What these human moles didn’t realize was that they were about to release some prehistoric bat-like creatures into the world. Beings who, after years of living in the dark, only rely on their hearing so they can find another victim. Best advice? Be silent.
“A Quiet Place” all over again.
The biggest difference with “A Quiet Place” is the unveiling of the bloodthirsty, ruthless flying monsters. In “A Quiet Place” it took a while. In “The Silence” you don’t have to wait that long before you see the little monsters at work. Yet there are several similarities to be discovered. So the word plagiarism is very quickly dangling off the tip of your tongue. Again it’s about a family with two children with daughter Ally (Kiernan Shipka) also having a hearing problem. Although not congenital but because of a terrible accident in which her grandparents also perish. Here too there are certain confounding factors among the family members that could put others life at risk. In “A Quiet Place” it was a newborn baby whose crying was a lure for the terrible creatures. Here it’s grandmother Lynn (Kate Trotter) with an annoying cough and the dog Otis who barks all the time. And just like in “Bird Box” there is a safe haven where everyone is heading for.
No need for hard thinking to figure out where they got the inspiration from.
“The silence” clearly has similarities with a whole bunch of other movies. The disadvantage is that you have an early feeling of haven’t-we-seen-this-already-before. Even though it is all a bit more action-packed and at certain moments more exciting. On the other hand, it’s true that not showing the imminent danger immediately (such as in “A Quiet Place“) ensures that you’ll be waiting with bated breath for that revelation. The biggest difference lies in the religious aspect that’s incorporated in the story. The Apocalypse breaks out and before you know it there’s some ingenious person who immediately starts a cult.
Religion and smartness. Not an obvious combination.
As with any religion, this self-proclaimed religious leader also introduces a dogma that makes it impossible to jeopardize the cult through unexpected, loud noises. The dogma involves a radical intervention on the followers. It is hoped that none of them will get stomach flu, with noisy flatulence as a result. Or that one of the short-sighted followers is a bit too obese, which makes that moving around is quite noisy. Away tactical advantage, I would say. In short, another proof that religion cannot be associated with logical reasoning. On the other hand, they were interested in the fertility of the young girl. Well, that says a lot.
More ridiculous things.
And unfortunately, the film is full of such pathetic ridiculous things. Actually, it was already stupid of them to ride off in a noisy car. And of course, they flee, even though the authorities advised to stay indoors. And wasn’t there anyone smart enough to simply keep the wood chipper running constantly? Maybe an annoying, maddening noise. But anything’s better than being eaten by naked, bat-like flying dinosaurs. With united forces, they could easily have destroyed the colony of animals in one fell swoop. Or were there really so many of these creatures? And nobody here who thinks to throw an object to mislead these bastards. Nope. They do things the hard way and start waving around with a mop.
The acting is not that bad.
Not a horror at all.
All in all, this film is the weakest one from the “Netflix Originals” stable. As a horror, it’s a total failure. It’s never really scary or exciting. The tension is removed by portraying the scary animals very early in the film. This type of film involves more than just portraying a lot of hysterically screaming people (which in turn has bad consequences for them). No, there are certainly better alternatives to view. And if you don’t know which one I mean, I recommend a reread.
You can watch The Silence on Netflix now!
I’m Peter.
Born in 1966.
And living in Belgium.
I’ve been married to Veronika for 10 years already.
And together we have two lovely kids , Karolien and Filip.
And guess what ….. I’m a big movie-fan. Who could have guessed that!
As long as I can remember I’ve been fascinated by the medium film. And the number of movies I’ve seen till now, is even unknown to me.
