The Quiet Ones

This isnt a bad movie. It just really irritates me when they purposely make the dialog barely audible so that you turn your tv up so you can follow the story. Then have all manner of loud noises to get cheap jump scares out of the audience. To me thats the biggest signal of a weak ass plot line or some other difficency the director or writers are trying to make up for. This movie is full of cheap jump scares with some real creepiness every so often.

"The Quiet Ones" focuses on a three students at the University of Oxford who join a research group led by Dr. Joseph Coupland (Jared Harris). The group is working to document parapsychological phenomenon in a young woman whom they believe has created and manifests a presence which she calls Evie. Isolated in the back country outside of Oxford, the group begins to unravel and secrets come to light.

I first off have to say that the primary reason I saw this film was because the poster was breathtaking— Gothic, beautiful, and unconventional. I wasn't even that impressed with the trailer, but the poster had some promise for me. Now, after seeing the film, I have mixed feelings.

It starts off well enough, and maintains a sense of ambiguity in its early stages, keeping the audience at arm's length; this is wonderful during the first act, but the problem is that it never seems to break free of this, even as the plot unravels and the truth comes out in the end— there is little surprise in the film because it never lets its audience in close enough to be affected by it. Clunky pacing and editing is largely the culprit here, which seems to prevent the film from ever really gaining steam. Instead, we are presented with a series of repetitious happenings that fail to build on one another, and the film edges on becoming an unmemorable blur as a consequence. The script feasts heavily on the staples of 21st century American horror films to its own detriment— we have possessed girls in white dresses, Satanic symbols, demons, religious cults, blah, blah, blah. You know the story.

That said, the film does have some strengths. The script is purportedly based on an actual experiment done in Toronto in the 1970s, so the film does have that working in its favor, no matter how ludicrous it is to take the events depicted at face value— the fact that there is at least a shred of truth to this is compelling in a world where every horror film released makes false claims of being based on reality. It is also remarkably well photographed; the interplay between the standard camera and the 8mm footage being filmed by the characters lends the picture a unique mood and sense of voyeurism, and the depictions of the experiments at times recall John Hough's British classic, "The Legend of Hell House." The performances in the film are also solid, with Jared Harris reeling everything in.

I think the overall problem I had with this film was, despite the fact that it roots itself in history as a period piece, the majority of it is just frankly underwhelming because it too often takes the route of 90% of the horror films we see released here in America every month. The premise is intriguing, but the execution leaves us with a relatively well-made film whose main problem is that is just isn't that darned compelling. 6/10.

I cut it off at 25 min...constantly having to adjust the volume. Loud as hell, characters whispering, loud as hell, characters whispering...SO ANNOYING

A psychiatrist takes a team of people to a retreat with a mental health patient in order to help her. Part of the process is the conducting of a series of experiments which go terribly awry.

An initial struggle for me was how can a doctor be allowed to take a vulnerable patient away and use as a guinea pig; the ease with which it occurred, caused certain moral thrash. As the story moves on, certain inexplicable incidents occur with seem to trouble the entire team.

Of course these "incidents" have had to take place since this is after all a horror film. The events cause a certain split as the doctor in charge believes there is a naturalistic explanation behind it whilst some of the team hold the view that there is a transcendent reality beyond what we see, feel and understand.

On the whole, it is an effective horror film as the story progresses with good pace, upping the intensity with the passing of time. It is held back by a rather sense of predictability due to a highly worked story/theme (night/dark/silence interrupted by a sudden noisy intervention) and a not very believable initiating incident (the taking of a patient away for experimentation).

When one of these films come out, and i categorise it because they are quite simply all the same at the core, i find myself hoping for something new, something shocking, inventive, anything to completely separate it from any other demonic/paranormal film out there. From the trailer this didn't give much away, which was a pleasant surprise. The story was there, yes, but it didn't feel the need to show any of its frightening tricks; rightfully leaving them up the sleeve where they belong. And i was left slightly intrigued by its mystique.

It was a good film, i enjoyed it, in ways it had its own unique vibe, but it is not enough to distance itself from the rest. The typical "jump" moments, where silence is replaced with a sharp, loud noise. The story is re hashed. Cults and Entities. The one thing it tries to do different is instead of just admitting that there is something wrong, the professor is adamant that the going ons are because of the patients mind. Things are flying about and going on fire because the patients mind did it.....

Jared Harris (Professor Coupland) and Olivia Cooke (Jane Harper) are the two who standout the most. The rest are fodder; displaying very poor acting and their characters where very tacky. The film does have its moments (T-Rex soundtrack) and it does have an unusual mellowness surrounding it, but unfortunately, it is just another routine horror.