The Silence is a 2019 horror film about a family who struggles to survive in a world terrorized by a deadly, primeval species who hunt only with their acute hearing.
Scientists predict that there’s more than three hundred mammal species alone that have yet to be discovered in the jungles, forests, deserts, oceans, and caves of our precious blue planet, though hopefully none are like those swarming about in director John R. Leonetti‘s latest creature feature The Silence. It’s not entirely a new movie experience for a number of reasons, but few in the genre are anymore, leaving style and dialogue about the only thing left in making any significance. Fortunately, there’s plenty of that on tap with a string of good performances and some clever visuals, even if it all feels put together in a rush.
After a team of researchers uncover a hidden cave system in the hollows of Pennsylvania, they accidently release a previously unknown species of animal, for millions of years evolving in darkness to hunt by sound. And now they’re free. And hungry. Like a plague, they sweep across the country, slaughtering everything in their path, survivors realizing that silence is the secret to staying alive. One such family finds themselves on the run, hoping to reach the countryside, the eldest daughter Ally (Kiernan Shipka) turned deaf from an accident a few years earlier. She understands what it means to be silent and guides her family into the quiet as an uncertain future awaits.
First, a quick thought on the creatures themselves, bat-like beasts that cloud together in enormous numbers, looking surprisingly authentic, if that’s possible, at least feeling as if they might actually come from Earth. They are a creepy bunch, chittering and squawking as they circle above ready to pounce and feed on anything that makes the slightest noise. They’re a far better slew of monsters than one might expect, given a lot of screen time to boot. And reproduction? Yuck.
Good also is the cast, with Shipka carrying most of the weight, though she’s not alone, with Miranda Otto as Ally’s mother and Stanley Tucci as her father doing good work as well, even as the story as a whole doesn’t offer them much in developing the bonds they do build. At about 85 minutes, there isn’t a lot of time for nuance, so the story unfolds fast and checks off a host of tropes we’ve all seen before, shifting from emergence to post apocalyptic with barely a blink. The filmmakers throw just about everything they can at the screen in constantly trying to push buttons, including an aggressive new religious cult of the hushed, their leader having lopped off his tongue.
Some of this has impact, where The Silence reaches for gritty hardcore survival and the consequences of such a devastating natural swing of who’s in charge. However, it meanders and strays off the good parts a little too often, better when it sticks to the urgency of the family’s plight than dealing with how else the rest of the world is handling things. One can’t help but wonder, what with the plethora of smartphone tech forced to shut down here if there’s some social commentary at play. Either way, the finale is a bit disappointing because it pits man against man instead of beast versus humans before wrapping it all up in a hurried flash complete with narration.
So I’ve come this far and you’ve no doubt already wondered if this is another A Quiet Place clone, much like Bird Box, the other Netflix film that drew such comparisons. Of course it is, but it’s worth noting that The Silence is adapted from a 2015 book by Shane Van Dyke (who co-wrote the screenplay), so it’s a little fuzzy on who gets bragging rights for first place. Either way, all mostly accomplish what they set out to do even if A Quiet Place remains the superior effort. The Silence is a mediocre story with some very good moments that may satisfy die hards of the genre but most like will leave others feeling a bit underfed.