Absoluter Gehorsam - Silent Retreat

Janey Andrews lost her family in a crash. She's alone in the world. A judge sends her to a meditation retreat for assault despite her plea of self-defense. The all-female retreat is in the middle of the woods run a doctor and his two sons. The women are forbidden to speak or even make eye contact. Janey tries to escape but she's captured by one of the sons although he seems to be afraid of something in the woods.

It's a watchable Canadian indie horror. It starts off with a creepy notion of these women being controlled by this weird doctor. It could have gone down many different paths. It tries to do something with sound. At least, it's unusual. It does need to decide whether the creature is attracted by sound or is hurt by it. It may make more sense for everybody to be quiet including the men. It may be even better if the doctor's introduction is done in a sound-proof room. The sound idea has issues that needs to be addressed. As for the creature itself, it is not the best although I'm sure the low budget restricted the movie. The main problem is the way the creature moves and the way it is filmed. It isn't scary. The blood looks too red especially in the dark. This horror has an intriguing premise and it needs more work to hash it out.

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.

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+

This movie is... unbelievably bad. I watch a ton of horror movies. The majority are disappointing but entertaining enough with some redeeming qualities. This movie has 0 redeeming qualities. Extremely poor performances, writing, direction, practical effects, dialogue, etc.

In movies, there are so many elements that can be used to tell a story. Not a single one is used advantageously here. It's very possible to tell a story with very little dialogue. Think of A Quiet Place. That movie obviously had much better resources to work with, of course, but still. It used other visual elements to tell you who the characters are, what they're thinking, what they want, what they fear, and why you should care about them. The dialogue that IS present in this movie is so amateur and one dimensional. It feels like the writers need to learn how to write a story before they try to make a movie.

Sometimes, bad movies are fun because they're goofy or campy. This movie was just cringey. I very nearly turned it off in the last 20 minutes, but decided to stick it out instead. I wish I got some kind of reward from the filmmakers for doing so.

Respect to all who worked on it, because it's hard to do regardless, and it's brave to pursue your vision & open yourself to critique. But man, this may be the worst movie I've ever watched.

Janey (Chelsea Jenish) is a trouble child. And for her efforts, or lack thereof, is sent off to a remote retreat for nonconformist girls under the guidance of a doctor (Robert Nolan) whose methods are ….a bit radical. The Doctor, and his staff of male accomplices, uses hypnosis and other extreme techniques to get their subjects to comply with their rules that command their patients to be completely obedient through deafening silence. Failure to obey the directions beyond their imposed 'two-strike rule' will result in the subject being fed to a lurking creature that inhabits the surrounding woods.

Janey is hardly the conformist. And her rebellious attitude towards the retreat's rules and regulators eventually lead to unavoidable confrontation. But with other girls simply disappearing, Janey must weigh her defiance against the risks of being overpowered by either the male administrators or the evil yet to be revealed from the outside.

Director Tricia Lee makes her feature film debut with Silent Retreat and shows a high degree of talent in transitioning genres. The film's opening scene is unquestionably horror, but the film switches gears and takes more of a dramatic path for the middle act focusing on Janey's relationship with fellow prisoner Alexis (Sofia Banzhaf) and the regimented retreat rules. We got lost ourselves for a while forgetting for a few moments that there was something mysteriously lurking within the forest. A mysterious something that reveals itself in the film's final chapters reminding us that Silent Retreat is horror plain and simple.

Characters as portrayed by Chelsea Jenish, Sofia Banzhaf and Robert Nolan are perfectly cast as they lend their combined talents to a tale that all three seem committed to pulling together. Lee does not seem to be in rush to allow blood splatter consistently through the film's full 95-minute running time and instead uses her DVD chapters wisely to form a setting and atmosphere that the film will heavily rely upon.

Silent Retreat won Best Canadian Film at the 2013 Toronto After Dark Film Festival, but you can remove the "Canadian" from the award plaque and you would still be left with a viable and enjoyable film worthy of our attention.

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