The Silence, based on the book by Tim Lebbon - 8.2 out of 10

The Silence, based on the book by Tim Lebbon

8.2 out of 10

There is a lot to enjoy in this motion picture, even for someone who avoids horror films on a regular basis – as this cinephile does.

Kiernan Shipka – of Mad Men fame – is wonderful in the role of Ally Andrews, a teenager that had been through a terrible car accident, before this film, so to say, and has lost her grandparents and her hearing.

Stupid boys, vicious and insensitive, mock her disability, repeatedly, but this is just part of the preparation one gets – presumably – when entering the increasingly gruesome atmosphere of a horror flick.

Stanley Tucci is grand, balanced, accomplished, aristocratic as always as the father, Hugh Andrews, a man who has some issues at the firm, as a piece of the same puzzle with ever darker tones.

His partner and friend is Glenn aka John Corbett, a solid, loyal, generous to the point of self-sacrifice man who had once saved Hugh, head butting a foe, in what looked like a nasty fight.

Primeval creatures are released from a cave system, where they have developed for millions of years a very accurate guiding system, based on their hearing – probably like bats, or even more sophisticated.

In some ways, this film reminds one of other Science fiction movies, such as Signs by Night Shyamalan – reviewed here http://realini.blogspot.com/2017/06/note-on-signs-written-and-directed-by.html or The Happening by the same writer, director http://realini.blogspot.com/2018/02/the-happening-written-and-directed-by.html

Just as in the Happening, Signs and so many other features, the news becomes a nightmare when they start showing the calamity descended upon humanity with the arrival of these voracious beats.

Small, ugly, repulsive to the point of nausea – making the film so much more enticing for amateurs of the genre we might guess, but at the same time making the viewing rather less pleasant for others.

When they see that the Apocalypse is coming, in the form of these creatures from hell, or the remote deep caves that people explored and thus set them free, the family decides to escape.

They travel in a van and ahead of them is Glenn in a Range Rover, stopping to refuel and thus encountering one of a series of crazies, who point a shotgun at Ally, who had just taken out the dog.

The Rottweiler is barking at the attacker with fury – which would be her demise in the end – and the man is on the edge, ready to pull the trigger, shouting without effect for the girl does not hear either him of the dog.

Hence, Glenn’s intervention is more than salutary, he shoots the mad man in the leg and they can depart, only to be stuck in a traffic jam, with cars stopped everywhere, as the population flees.

The intrepid Glenn takes a side route with the Sports Utility Vehicle that shows its stamina here – they are generally not used off road, in spite of their name – up to the stage where deer run in front of it in panic.

Hunted by the newly liberated species, the animals cause the Range Rover to flip over in a ravine, where the brave Glenn is trapped and there is no help from fire brigade or other emergency services, seeing as they are overcrowded dealing with The Apocalypse and they are always busy.

The Super Hero asks for his guns and tells his friend Hugh that he must take his family away and leave him there, trapped in the wreck of the SUV, for there is no other choice…he would shoot him if he does not.

As they arrive at their van, stopped in the tracks near the accident, and they start it, the Rottweiler becomes – again – mad with fury – making a dog owner like the under signed feel somewhat enraged to think that they should have trained the pet and teach it to listen to at least a No! – barking and thus attracting multitudes of vicious little monsters, pushing to penetrate the safety of the van and hunt the humans trapped inside, until Glenn comes to their defense.

Not literally, for he is still trapped within his vehicle, but he starts shooting and attracting the monsters to his place, killing quite a few, but in the end, overwhelmed by their number, he dies as Hero and role Model.

This when Hugh takes a dramatic step – for he should have taken the time and effort to make the Rottweiler resilient, patient and careful to understand a No! to emphasize this annoying, tragic aspect – and opens the rear door.

That means the poor, aggressive, noise-making animal is condemned to die!

It is also clear that, without this sacrifice, all the family would have perished, given that the noise is the element that guides the predators and they never stop until they enter the premises.

After this, they meet other, just as vicious or worse, given that, unlike the greedy primeval species, they have the capacity to reason, think, enemies in the shape of humans who want the Andrews family to join them, their ghastly, small cult.