Starring Kiernan Shipka, Stanley Tucci, Miranda Otto, John Corbett, Kate Trotter, Kyle Breitkopf, Dempsey Bryk and Billy MacLellan

Directed by John R Leonetti

Netflix, available now

A cave excavation unleashes a colossal horde of carnivorous, bat-like creatures that hunt by sound. Hugh and Kelly Andrews flee across the US with their family and friends, and soon discover just how bad the situation is.

Adapted from Tim Lebbon’s 2015 novel, The Silence has been unfairly and incorrectly compared to A Quiet Place by people who are presumably completely unaware of Deep Impact/Armageddon, Dredd/The Raid and countless other examples of similar films releasing at similar times. That’s already led to some blisteringly terrible writing about the movie and a sense of it being obscured by that writing. It isn’t, and shouldn’t be. Because The Silence is very much its own beast.

That’s never truer than in the grace notes that litter the script. Lebbon and script writers Carey and Shane Van Dyke understand how families work and there are countless endearing, familiar beats in the opening half hour. I especially liked the gag about how Lynn is hiding her smoking from her daughter but everyone else knows and how it’s used to solve a problem and release tension at two different points. A later moment uses a striking visual and a fiercely nasty idea to render smartphones into the most terrifying object in the world. Still others see Hugh fight back with his brain instead of physically. Arguably the best moment comes in the closing scenes, where he and Kelly fight for their children’s lives with a refreshing lack of Hollywood romanticism. There’s no flashy choreography and it’s all the better for it; just two terrified parents unleashing abject brutality to protect what they have. It feels visceral, untidy and real and lends that veracity to the movie.

But the script isn’t the only strong player here. The cast are uniformly good to great, with Tucci in effortlessly good form yet again and Otto and Trotter especially good as mother and daughter. The emotional shorthand of the family means you buy in even further and faster and it gives the film a persistent air of tension especially when tough choices have to be made and made, again, in silence. Corbett’s great too, and the friendship between Uncle Glenn and Hugh is one of the movie’s early lynchpins.

Front and centre here is Shipka who is surely in the running for Netflix MVP at this point. She’s typically good, and it’s interesting watching this after Sabrina to see her range. Sabrina Spelman is convinced she has the answer and usually does. Ally Andrews is a newly deaf young woman who has adjusted but is rarely not on her heels. This is the end of the world and Shipka cleverly shows us Ally is no one’s victim even as she reels from events.

It’s not all plain sailing however, While Shipka is great, and the use of ASL in the movie is admirable and organic, the simple truth is that a hearing actress was cast in a role a deaf actress was uniquely equipped to play. In this, and this alone, The Silence and A Quiet Place are in the same place at the same time. And A Quiet Place’s solution to the problem is more honest and forward facing.

Verdict: That issue aside, The Silence isn’t just one of the strongest Netflix movies we’ve seen to date, it’s legitimately one of the best horror movies of the year so far. Check it, and the original book, out. 9/10

Alasdair Stuart

 

Click here to read our review of the original novel

And here to win a copy