Don't Speak

Actors deal for a bread with producer. It's like garbage

7 partying young people get stranded on a mysterious island seeking first aid. The less-than-helpful villagers only tell them, "Shhh!" The young people proceed to scream and holler.

Don't Speak has almost no redeeming qualities. This is not just direct-to-video, this is direct-to-Vimeo. However small the budget-- and it was small!-- DS wasted it. The acting is wooden and over-dramatic in turns. Even if that wasn't the case, the dialog is flat, awkward, not even functional. There's no building of suspense beyond the villagers' warnings, no foreshadowing, and even if there was, it wouldn't matter, because the characters are unlikable and nobody is going to care what trouble they get themselves into. The camera work is nothing special, on the amateur side, with way too many shots of small groups walking (yes, they split up, duh).

The one good thing about this film was a short, surreal dream sequence that lasted less than a minute, apparently painted-over film, which was aesthetically interesting. The rest? Toss it all out.

Seven young party animals get stranded on a mysterious island. The storyline does get interesting and it has a surprising ending. I do think this film is pretty original and it deserves a way higher score.

It has the feel of old inept t.v. Shows with uni-dimensional characters void of any realistic behavior. Like watching a bunch of young adults acting like high-school kids but without the actual acting. Very superficially cliched and stereotypical in all of its aspects. The script is to awful to afford the actors any chance to show they're potential but for the most of them, its still quite obvious that there isn't any to begin with. It might at best have comical value if watched for its ridicule in the right settings. The cinematography isn't that bad though.

I enjoy low budget horror, probably more than most but I'll never understand why the writers (if there was one) populate these films with the most annoying unlikeable characters conceivable. The 7 young unfortunates in DON'T SPEAK are so awful that you spend the film wishing for their deaths. To top it off, for people vacationing in sunny climes, you will never find a paler group of human beings outside of a subterranean cave system where the residents have resided for decades. A decent premise can't overcome the lack of attention to detail, hammy acting and shallow characters. Avoid this one and never speak of it again.