A Not as Quiet as it Should be Place

Rating: 4/10 (14 June 2018)

Gosh, this movie had so much potential. Some positives off the bat, the movie looks great. The shots are crisp and the settings are great to look at. The quiet scenes, the completely quiet scenes that is, are pretty great. Lots of effort from the actors to be convincing without saying anything, and tension can be very high. However, there lies the problem. The film loses sight quickly and with it, the gimmick is lost. When I imagine a movie about survival through silence, I think that that's what I'll get. Think of No Country For Old Men. The movie has no score music throughout the whole thing and very sparse dialogue. Despite this, it's easily one of the most suspenseful movies ever crafted. Now apply that to a movie that adds a gimmick where talking or making sounds can get someone killed. That's extremely intruiging and makes for a good base. But you've gotta commit. The first mistep is adding score music. Score music can be extremely effective, think any Paul Thomas Anderson movie. Think any Tarantino movie. But like previously mentioned, it can also be better without. Any scene with some shred of tension is ruined by score music because it goes against the idea of the movie. Also, unsurprisingly, the writers decided to dig themselves holes they didn't need to. Obviously, a horror movie without plot holes doesn't exist. Even the greats like The Shining have them. But the difference is how much it distracts. It changes from different people, but why would anybody give a pass to a scene where a kid who fully understands the situation, decides that making as much noise as possible is ok? As an establishing scene, it really makes the rest of the movie seem like one giant eye role because right from the top, your mind is already working way too fast for the movie. Obviously it's a debut film, and for such it's pretty ambitious, which i give lots of credit for. The movie did well and that's great that unique horror can get a chance. With Hereditary doing well, maybe the horror world can have a renaissance of sorts. This, however, should be learned from, and expanded on in future projects. It's enjoyable and short at the very least, and if you want something not shot on a camcorder or iPhone, this might be a fun change of pace.