Director: John R Leonetti
Writer: Carey Van Dyke, Shane Van Dyke (Screenplay) Tim Lebbon (Novel)
Starring: Stanley Tucci, Kiernan Shipka, Miranda Otto, Kate Trotter, John Corbett, Kyle Breitkopf
Plot: A family struggles to survive in a world terrorized by a deadly, primeval species who hunt only with their acute hearing.
Runtime: 1 Hour 30 Minutes
There may be spoilers in the rest of the review
Verdict: Painfully Slow
Story: The Silence starts as we meet a family father Hugh (Tucci), Kelly (Otto) deaf teenager daughter Ally (Shipka), youngster child Jude (Breitkopf), grandma Lynn (Trotter) and Uncle Glen (Corbett), they are going through an everyday life situation, until the town comes under attack from mysterious creatures that are attracted by noise.
The family go against the advice of the television and look to get out of the city, which sees them needing to face difficult decisions to survive and learning to operate in silence.
Thoughts on The Silence
Characters – Hugh is the father of the house, he works in construction planning (I think, we get one 10 second scene of his job), he is getting worried about where his daughter will go to college. When the attack starts, he gets his family out of the city and must lead them on the quest for safety, he will have to do the risker jobs along the way. Ally is the teenage daughter who is deaf after an accident, she has adapted to life this way well and she turns out to be one of the few people in the world that can cope with the silence required to survive. Kelly is the mum, she is basically just a mom that is her character. Lynn is the grandmother that is sick, she will need to keep her medication up to survive.
Performances – Stanley Tucci does try hard in this role, only he just can’t get into the role, Kiernan Shipka is never believable in her deaf character role, this is just the beginning of terribly written characters that give nobody a chance to shine.
Story – The story follows one family as they look to find safety after a new predator who hunts through sound that have taken over America. The story will feel like the early stages of ‘A Quiet Place’ even if this story was written first. Where it follows the first outbreak because it does build the panic, like every single zombie movie, which does make it feel like we have seen it before. The struggles have been done before, this does end up being one of the most done stories we have ever seen, going nowhere fast just becoming boring throughout the film.
Horror – The horror in the film comes from the creatures which almost feel comical as we don’t get to see just how deadly they are.
Settings – The film is set in the rural area in America which shows where safety is search for.
Special Effects – The effects in the film are poor too, the creatures are all CGI and just out of place on the screen.
Scene of the Movie – The credits because it was over.
That Moment That Annoyed Me – It was nothing new.
Final Thoughts – This is a poor, boring and seen before horror movie that just never reaches the potential it wants.
Overall: Disappointing throughout.
Rating
