Absoluter Gehorsam - Silent Retreat

The fact that so many reviews point out the inconsistency in tone of the film is a hint. I mean, I get it, I get that they wanted to do all of this, but it just doesn't work. The first half of the film is fine, it's just that it seems to turn direction in such a jarring way that it really kills all the momentum it had been building up. The performances are fine, even if the characters are nothing to write home about, and the production values for an indie film are also pretty impressive. It really comes down to the screenplay and the fact that the directing needed to be toned down a bit. Even for a good time, this doesn't all work, although it could've.

Silent Retreat (2013) is a Canadian movie that I recently watched on Prime. The storyline follows a troubled young lady who is sent to a unique rehabilitation retreat where she isn't allowed to talk. It is rumored there's a dark past at the rehab center and a creature that eats people in the surrounding woods. When other young ladies turn up missing at the center, the students don't know if they've been released, eaten by the creature in the woods or worse... The new girl is itching to find out what's what and try to free the other girls.

This movie is directed by Tricia Lee (Blood Hunters) and stars Sofia Banzhaf (Splinters), Robert Nolan (Sixty Minutes to Midnight), Jen Pogue (The Masked Saint) and Katie Buitendyk (Total Frat Movie).

I found the first hour of this movie frustrating. The storyline was fairly straightforward with some unique elements. There is some good subplots and character development baked in. The acting, writing and dialogue were uneven and disappointing at times. Even the first few horror scenes, which were limited, were shot too dark and missed the mark. But an hour into the movie the horror elements kick up a notch and you get your first great kill with gore and solid flesh eating. The creature in the woods reveal is outstanding and I was left wondering where that was the entire movie. The conclusion is actually pretty good if you can be patient enough to get to it.

Overall, this has some well executed scenes at the end that make it worth a watch but missed an opportunity to be great. I would score this a 5/10 and recommend seeing it once.

A troubled teen (Chelsea Jenish) is brought to a strange rehabilitation camp in the woods of the Northeast, which is run by a stern "doctor" and his two sons. The patients are all female and no one is permitted to talk. Meanwhile something malevolent lurks in the woods.

"Silent Retreat" (2013) was shot in Ontario and only cost $185,000 (USD), but is professionally made Indie drama/horror. The locations, actors, music, cinematography, editing and so forth are surprisingly effective for super low-budget fare. Sofia Banzhaf (Alexis) and Jen Pogue (Pink Stripe) stand out in the feminine department.

Unfortunately, there are a few glaring problems. For one, the creature angle wasn't needed and feels undeveloped, not to mention it needlessly turns an interesting story about conformity into gory monster mayhem. Think "The Stepford Wives," minus the robotics, mixed with a dash of "Gargoyles" and the typical Tarantino bloody climax. Then there's the eye-rolling sapphic bit at around the 35-minute mark, which is also just thrown in with zero development. No doubt the director/writer wanted to score points for political correctness and attract an award, which ironically smacks of conformity.

The third issue is the one-dimensional depiction of males and females. There's no balance regarding either gender in liberated Western Civilization. Literally ALL women are suppressed and oppressed while ALL men are controlling, abusing monsters. If this were remotely so, how exactly did Oprah and Ellen have their popular shows and become billionaires?

Then there's the one-dimensional depiction of the Bible's view of women. Don't get me wrong, there are men in real-life like the "doctor," but how about featuring a little more info for some honest balance? Otherwise, viewers will walk away with a skewed understanding of what the Scriptures actually teach on the topic. For instance, God chose Deborah to lead Israel for 40 years spiritually, legally, politically and militarily (Judges 2:16 & 4:4-9). Hebrew men sought instruction from prophetess Huldah (2 Kings 22:14-20). Miriam assumed the role of prophet during the exodus and led in worship (Exodus 15:20-21). Keep in mind that this was a patriarchal culture in the Near East.

Furthermore, the first evangelists in the New Testament were women sent by Christ who instructed men (Mark 16:1, Luke 24:10, Matthew 28:1-10 & Mark 16:7). Priscilla taught scholar Apollos "more accurately" (Acts 18:24-26). Your see, there is neither male nor female IN Christ (Galatians 3:28). Women with the prophetic gift were expected to prophesy to others and not keep silent, as well as pray in public (1 Corinthians 11:4-5). Philip the evangelist "had four unmarried daughters who prophesied" (Acts 21:9). I'm just supplying additional information for those who might walk away from this film with a twisted understanding of the topic.

I realize this is a low-budget Indie, but how about some balance simply for the sake of honesty and realism?

The movie runs 1 hour, 24 minutes, and was shot in Kettleby, Ontario (I'm assuming Kettleby Valley Camp), which is a dozen miles north of Toronto.

GRADE: C-/D+

Why the extreme low scores and angry reviews? This movie reminds me of silly late night horror films from the 80s, like you'd see with Elvira. It's almost as if they took 3 or more films and mashed them together. It's odd. It's not perfect.

The simple setting is nice and fits the tone of this idea of a nice quiet place to send delinquent kids.

Then it changes... There's a monster movie, a camp "last girl" gory movie, and a rapey psychological horror movie all suddenly collide into a weird mix. And absurd hypnosis.

The whole thing could have been blah, but the acting of the 2 main girls and some actually well done gory scenes made it enjoyable.

I'm scoring this a bit higher because I just read reviews that gave it a 1 out of 10 (which is way too harsh), then said things they liked. That makes no sense. At least give it a 4 or 5 for those good bits you liked. This movie isn't that bad, so these low scores just seem angry. Some reviews contradict themselves by saying they loved so-and-so in their role, yet scored a 1 or 2. (Perhaps I'm missing some behind-the-scenes drama? Which probably would not matter imo.) I try to focus on the positives, especially online. Spread kindness!

These filmmakers did pretty well with a low budget and lot of hard work. There's a lot of creativity here, maybe unfocused. And the talent shows. Good luck to their future endeavors!

Sent to a retreat in the woods, a troubled woman is sent to a retreat in the middle of the woods where she finds the owners are secretly brainwashing women into being obedient wives and feeding the rejects to a deranged creature nearby and tries to get away alive.

This one was quite an intriguing if really flawed creature feature. Among the better qualities here is the way this one builds up the really intriguing premise of the retreat out in the middle of the woods run by the sinister family that enforces a strict series of rules on them for their beneficial behavior. It's rather interesting how it manages to build this in the first half as there's the rules in play that simply make no sense yet creates an atmosphere here where it's all about ensuring the supposedly-perfect spawning ground for their secret agenda which is one of the more dark and sinister motives here for covering up their tracks, yet still manages to create the kind of fun here wallowing in this chilling atmosphere with the silence, refusal to acknowledge anyone and the general state of forced serenity created makes this a quite chilling set-up. Once it gets to the later half and there's the fun of the creature thrown into the mix that not only makes for a solid storyline addition as well as helping to aid in his mission this one does become a lot more fun with the additional body-count added to the creepiness displayed by the set-up as the first encounter out in the woods rescuing her friend leads to the action-packed massacre of the girls in the cabin as well as the aftermath of cleaning up after it which makes for some even better fun throughout here. As well, that leaves the ending confrontation quite thrilling as well with plenty of fine encounters that are rather bloody and really kick this one up somewhat. These here are what hold this one up over it's few minor flaws present. The main feature holding this one back is the utterly bland and boring beginning half which is quite low on action as it just tends to focus on the setup of the secret cult or her trying to adapt to the rules of the place which are just utterly bland and really keep the film pretty slow-going in this part of the film and keep the creature off-screen during this time. While that occurs, it's also quite a relief since the creature here is a complete joke with many really bad flaws about it, namely the awful look of the thing which is clearly hampered by it's low-budget nature but also the just weak design as well since it looks really lame and has a weak prosthetic look that doesn't help it much even if that wasn't the case. These here really hold this one back.

Rated R: Graphic Violence and Language.