"The Silence" may not be as bad as everyone is making it out to be, but my god - it is a very flawed movie, which it may not be surprising for many, since it's directed by John R. Leonetti. The man, who is responsible for movies like Mortal Kombat: Annihilation, The Butterfly Effect 2, Annabelle, Wolves at the Door and Wish Upon.
The story goes as follows: "The world is under attack from terrifying creatures, who hunt by sound. A teenage girl named Ally Andrews that lost her hearing in a car accident tries to seek refuge alongside with her family, while the only way of communicating with each other is sign language, with some moments of whispering". If that sounds very familiar, then you might have heard that "The Silence" does share almost the same premise with a movie that came out last year and it's called "A Quiet Place", but here's the weirdest thing - "The Silence" is based on a book that was released back in 2015, so... at least there is something that distinct them from each other, but it will still be compared to "A Quiet Place", since it's impossible not to compare it. In my opinion - "A Quiet Place" is better, even though i wasn't a huge fan of that movie and at least it did some things that were good, unlike this movie.
"The Silence" is not very well made. It has a story that wasn't all that good in the first place, very average characters, bland dialogue, weak music, awful visual effects, OK cinematography and weak acting. The only things that i liked were the sound, Stanley Tucci's performance, 20% of the shot composition and a scene in the store, where the two main characters have to get antibiotics and that's it. Everything is either poorly made or hilariously bad.
The story is where i have many problems. They set up the fact that Ally (the daughter) lost her hearing, so everyone in the family knows sign language, since it's the only way they can communicate with her, but there are some moments that can be very inconsistent. There are moments, where Hugh (Stanley Tucci) is speaking to Ally (Kiernan Shipka) without sign language. He is speaking to her very normally and Ally can still understand him for some reason, even though there are a few moments that the movie did focus in her point of view to prove that she can't hear anything (only loud noise), but she can still hear him in some moments?
The movie started off OK (the scene with the bullies is one of the worst moments in the movie) and continues the same way and to be honest - i was starting to get invested into the movie little by little (shocking, right?), but then they introduce "The Reverend" and this is where everything went downhill and at that point the movie has become insufferable to watch, even after re-watching it - i wanted to skip everything after that moment, but i didn't and i choose to continue anyway.
"The Reverend" tries to recruit the two main characters in his cult, but unsuccessfully and then in 1 hour and 7 minutes the cult come to the house that the family is now staying and tries again to recruit them and he reveals that he has a interest in Ally's "fertility". This is where i was like "Are you serious? Do they really want to go in that direction?". From that point there are two ways it can go with that awful idea: 1. The cult will try to kidnap her, while all of the family are at the house and try to protect her. 2. They will successfully kidnap her and the father will go to hunt the cult members, kill the leader in a fight and saving his daughter. They went with the first way, but with a difference from my prediction. The movie ends in 1 hour and 24 minutes, which means that all of those things happens within the amount of 17 minutes and i'm like "How can they do all of that stuff in this short amount of time?"
Even the idea of how to kidnap Ally is ridiculous. They send a little girl to the front door that has phones strapped to her to be used as a distraction and they place more phones to the house, including upstairs (where Ally is sleeping) on the window outside, so that they can attract the vesps and to attack the family. I have one question: How did they put a phone outside the window upstairs? One of them has to climb to the roof to put a phone with a tape on the window, but he would make so much noise and in that way the vesps will hear him very easily. They do all of those things, so that they wait in the basement, if someone happens to go down there. That plan is stupid, because it would easily kill everyone, including the girl that they send and Ally, who they want to take away. All of this would not have happened, if the family locked the gate of the high fence when they returned with the antibiotics. Before i forget to mention: when "The Reverend" shows us that he has no tongue - it's so hilarious. He does that two times and that way he does it is very funny. He even snarls at the main characters and for me that was the cherry on top.
So yeah. Those are the complaints that i have with the movie. There are still things that don't work that i didn't mention, but it's better if you see it instead. For me - it barely managed to get a 3/10. It's like it was fighting very hard to get a good rating, but it would start losing and fall on the ground in every minute in a match and trying to get up, but even when he gives his best - he will accept his defeat very early. I'm giving "The Silence" a 2.6/10.
The story goes as follows: "The world is under attack from terrifying creatures, who hunt by sound. A teenage girl named Ally Andrews that lost her hearing in a car accident tries to seek refuge alongside with her family, while the only way of communicating with each other is sign language, with some moments of whispering". If that sounds very familiar, then you might have heard that "The Silence" does share almost the same premise with a movie that came out last year and it's called "A Quiet Place", but here's the weirdest thing - "The Silence" is based on a book that was released back in 2015, so... at least there is something that distinct them from each other, but it will still be compared to "A Quiet Place", since it's impossible not to compare it. In my opinion - "A Quiet Place" is better, even though i wasn't a huge fan of that movie and at least it did some things that were good, unlike this movie.
"The Silence" is not very well made. It has a story that wasn't all that good in the first place, very average characters, bland dialogue, weak music, awful visual effects, OK cinematography and weak acting. The only things that i liked were the sound, Stanley Tucci's performance, 20% of the shot composition and a scene in the store, where the two main characters have to get antibiotics and that's it. Everything is either poorly made or hilariously bad.
The story is where i have many problems. They set up the fact that Ally (the daughter) lost her hearing, so everyone in the family knows sign language, since it's the only way they can communicate with her, but there are some moments that can be very inconsistent. There are moments, where Hugh (Stanley Tucci) is speaking to Ally (Kiernan Shipka) without sign language. He is speaking to her very normally and Ally can still understand him for some reason, even though there are a few moments that the movie did focus in her point of view to prove that she can't hear anything (only loud noise), but she can still hear him in some moments?
The movie started off OK (the scene with the bullies is one of the worst moments in the movie) and continues the same way and to be honest - i was starting to get invested into the movie little by little (shocking, right?), but then they introduce "The Reverend" and this is where everything went downhill and at that point the movie has become insufferable to watch, even after re-watching it - i wanted to skip everything after that moment, but i didn't and i choose to continue anyway.
"The Reverend" tries to recruit the two main characters in his cult, but unsuccessfully and then in 1 hour and 7 minutes the cult come to the house that the family is now staying and tries again to recruit them and he reveals that he has a interest in Ally's "fertility". This is where i was like "Are you serious? Do they really want to go in that direction?". From that point there are two ways it can go with that awful idea: 1. The cult will try to kidnap her, while all of the family are at the house and try to protect her. 2. They will successfully kidnap her and the father will go to hunt the cult members, kill the leader in a fight and saving his daughter. They went with the first way, but with a difference from my prediction. The movie ends in 1 hour and 24 minutes, which means that all of those things happens within the amount of 17 minutes and i'm like "How can they do all of that stuff in this short amount of time?"
Even the idea of how to kidnap Ally is ridiculous. They send a little girl to the front door that has phones strapped to her to be used as a distraction and they place more phones to the house, including upstairs (where Ally is sleeping) on the window outside, so that they can attract the vesps and to attack the family. I have one question: How did they put a phone outside the window upstairs? One of them has to climb to the roof to put a phone with a tape on the window, but he would make so much noise and in that way the vesps will hear him very easily. They do all of those things, so that they wait in the basement, if someone happens to go down there. That plan is stupid, because it would easily kill everyone, including the girl that they send and Ally, who they want to take away. All of this would not have happened, if the family locked the gate of the high fence when they returned with the antibiotics. Before i forget to mention: when "The Reverend" shows us that he has no tongue - it's so hilarious. He does that two times and that way he does it is very funny. He even snarls at the main characters and for me that was the cherry on top.
So yeah. Those are the complaints that i have with the movie. There are still things that don't work that i didn't mention, but it's better if you see it instead. For me - it barely managed to get a 3/10. It's like it was fighting very hard to get a good rating, but it would start losing and fall on the ground in every minute in a match and trying to get up, but even when he gives his best - he will accept his defeat very early. I'm giving "The Silence" a 2.6/10.