Silence of the Prey

This movie plays on recent events happening in the United States, where hundreds of thousands of undocumented people are going missing. In this one, an undocumented person is sent to work for a creepy man out in the country for room and board. You can already see where this is going. I don't normally take too many chances on low budget horror movies but I did on this one and I am not impressed. There is more wrong with this movie than right. The acting is not it. The lead actress is kind of annoying. The chemistry between the two leads is nonexistent. The editing is like something you'd see from the Sci-Fi channel at 2am. The writing fails to scare, at all. I've seen worse, but I've seen alot of movies. You might be able to sit through the whole thing. The soundtrack is good and the poster looks legit. Other than that, there's nothing to rave about.

Of course it was a given that I had to sit down and watch the 2024 horror movie "Silence of the Prey", as I happened to stumble upon it by random chance here in 2024. Sure, I had never heard about the movie, not that it really mattered, as it being a horror movie was sufficient for me to opt to sit down and watch it.

Now, I wasn't harboring any expectations to the movie, as I literally had no idea what I was in for here, aside from it being a horror movie. And I have to say that the movie's cover was the reason why I stopped and took notice of the movie.

The storyline in the movie, as written by Karyna Kudzina and Saro Varjabedian, was semi-adequate. It was a bit of a slow burn, but it proved to be sort of entertaining enough for what it was, provided you can endure the pacing of the narrative. And I have to say that the character gallery and some of the acting performances definitely helped to make the movie all the more enjoyable to sit through. The movie did, however, suffer from a somewhat stale and monotonous narrative, there wasn't much of any forward momentum, nor of anything overly thrilling or scary happening, and that made sitting through "Silence of the Prey" a bit of a drag.

I wasn't familiar with the casted actors and actresses in the movie. I wasn't particularly impressed with the performance put on by leading actress Karyna Kudzina (playing Nina), whom also co-wrote and co-directed the movie, as she didn't have a natural delivery of her dialogue or acting, making it feel shunted and rigid. Truth be told, she acted and looked like a puppet where some puppeteer has a hand up inside in order to make it move and perform. The movie, however, was carried by actor Chris LaPanta's (playing Luther) performance, and actor Monte Bezell (playing Andres) also put on a good performance.

Visually then "Silence of the Prey" wasn't packing a particularly impressive display. The movie wasn't really dependent on special effects and CGI, so that was a good thing, and thus the movie didn't really have an abundance of special effects nor CGI effects.

"Silence of the Prey" came and went without leaving much of a lasting impression. Sure, it was watchable for what it was, but it is hardly a movie that I will be picking up a second time. Nor is it a movie that I would recommend for horror fans to rush out and get to watch.

My rating of directors Karyna Kudzina and Michael Vaynberg's 2024 horror movie "Silence of the Prey" lands on a three out of ten stars.

I chose to watch it as it was available for free and because the poster was not too bad. Written by Karyna Kudzina and Saro Varjabedian, the movie's plot was predicated on dubious assumptions - at the end credits there was the information about 85,000 missing children but this movie does not make chidren even a subject of discussion! Perhaps missing someone else... like mothers, could be relevant for the story! Even though the story moved at a very slow pace, it ended up being just watchable - that is, if you could get beyond how boring it was! The lack of anything really exciting or frightening made watching "Silence of the Prey" a bit tedious.

Honestly, I just signed up on this platform to leave a review because this movie just won't let me rest! I lived in Belarus for a while, and it was especially fun to recognize familiar places and the atmosphere, though the movie itself is far from 'fun' 😂. It seriously got on my nerves! The plot is super intense at times, gave me chills, and that guy in the costume with horns - absolutely terrifying! Every time he showed up, I almost jumped out of my seat! 😱 But at the same time, everything is shot so well, visually it's amazing. I'm giving it 9 out of 10, because there were a couple of moments that could have been developed more, but it's still a solid film! Now I'm just sitting here, trying to process what I just watched 😅.

While I don't hate social commentary in a film, Silence of the Prey goes just a bit too heavy-handed and a bit too aggressive with its topics. I actually like the attempted message of the story, but the writing and acting aren't where they should be.

For starters, far too much is revealed and given away far too early. You already know what's going to happen next because there's no actual attempt at building up the mystery. While the characters are especially suitable choices for the story, there's no build-up and their arcs add very little. It's also too blunt with its particular messages, to the point where conversations and exchanges feel stilted and too apparent..... The acting also only has misfires. No one seems to know how to portray their characters, and there are many scenes where it just feels like people don't even know how to facially express the correct emotions. Something always feels off, which just makes scenes that much more annoying..... But the visuals are quite pleasing. There's a good attempt at giving the right levels of foreboding and ominous with how each scene is captured. While there are instances of scenes getting close to but not quite hitting the mark, there are many more scenes that do hit the mark in terms of visuals.... The soundtrack is also a step above standard fare, though it's often a bit too overdone, with many scenes feeling too heavy and dark for the mood that they try to achieve. There's just too much overcompensation with the music where there should be none.

Probably not a surprise that Silence of the Prey isn't good. It had promise, but never reached its potential.