The Silence

Based on the concept I was rather surprised that Netflix would venture into material so similiar to one of their other films (A Quiet Place) and so shockingly fast. I can however say this is a different movie altogether, though not really in good way.

Early on I was gripped, fantastically made and looking film where Tucci is on the best form I've seen him since The Lovely Bones (2009). This I thought was going to be something really special, but alas the quality dipped pretty hardcore in the last act.

It tells the story of small winged creatures that begin to besiege the world in a near apocalyptic event. They respond only to sound so the trick is silence (See where the Quiet Place comparison comes in?). The film follows a family surviving in this world, led by father Tucci and daughter played by Kiernan "Sabrina" Shipka.

The cast deliver, the sfx are passable and the whole thing is well constructed but religion takes the stage and ruins the film. Despite being a near theocratic nation I'm still amazed how critical Hollywood usually is over religion and The Silence is no different. It takes a hyper realistic angle here with the religious's interpretation of the incident and it's positively chilling because it's so very believable.

I wish they hadn't gone down that route, though realistic it made for uncomfortable viewing and led the movie to a satisfying yet sudden and rather incomplete finale.

The Silence should/could have been an outstanding film but instead came out as a real disappointment.

The Good:

Tucci is on top form

Some solid ideas

The Bad:

Certain flaws in logic and consistency

Goes in an uncomfortable direction

To start things off I saw A Quiet Place and rather enjoyed, It was refreshing and original. Then came a similarly themed Bird Box on Netflix and I thought that was OK and watchable, Now comes The Silence, A Quiet Place wannabe that just doesn't have the oomph or pinache of the original. It had some good moments but were too few and far between. One problem I had with both A Quiet Place and The Silence is the premise that humans are too inept and powerless to keep from becoming prey/food for the creatures. They're attracted to sound so why not set up some humongous speakers and amps in an empty stadium or city, crank it up and get all those suckers to gather there, then have an an F-22 drop a tactical nuke on them and blow them all to kingdom come. Hell, they did that to the aliens in Alien vs Predator:Requiem. They can do that in these movies too.

Basic biology would have it that in their natural environment deep underground, these voracious carnivores must have been feeding on a population of herbivores with at least ten times their biomass. I'm not sure what the underground herbivores feed on, but presumably there's a whole underground flora that gets by without photosynthesis. These herbivores must be pretty ferocious themselves, since they have forced the egg-laying bats to evolve such deadly teeth and talons. Though slower than the bat-things, eventually they too will figure out how to crawl through the same hole to the surface.

So I'm thinking sequel: "The Bleat," in which a race of killer sheep invade the eastern U.S., and every action scene begins with a terrifying "Baaaaa!" At first the desperate humans just try to kill them, for instance by tying cowbells around their necks to attract the killer bats, but eventually our heroes learn to shear them and use the wool to make bat-resistant winter garments.

A lot of people are saying this is a rip off of A Quiet Place... that is totally incorrect actually. If anything A Quiet Place and Birdbox ripped off the premise from the 2015 book The Silence by Tim Lebbon. Do some research people, there have been numerous articles that state as much.

As far as the movie... a middle of the road decent time killer, it held my interest. It could have been much more in the right hands. I thought the acting was on par with the material the actors had to work with. CGI was lax and the situations the family found themselves in could have been orchestrated to be much more complex and dramatized. This is why A Quiet Place excelled.

People try entirely too hard to figure out what's wrong with a movie rather than just enjoy it. Don't go into every movie expecting it to be the best movie ever and perhaps you won't be so disappointed. Few movies deserve a 1 or 2 rating, just as few as deserve a 9 or 10.

After a spell goes awry, Aunt Zelda & Sabrina are forced to reenact A Quiet Place with an 80s B movie creature feature budget, comparatively speaking.