User reviews

A lot of people are saying this is a rip off of A Quiet Place... that is totally incorrect actually. If anything A Quiet Place and Birdbox ripped off the premise from the 2015 book The Silence by Tim Lebbon. Do some research people, there have been numerous articles that state as much.

As far as the movie... a middle of the road decent time killer, it held my interest. It could have been much more in the right hands. I thought the acting was on par with the material the actors had to work with. CGI was lax and the situations the family found themselves in could have been orchestrated to be much more complex and dramatized. This is why A Quiet Place excelled.

People try entirely too hard to figure out what's wrong with a movie rather than just enjoy it. Don't go into every movie expecting it to be the best movie ever and perhaps you won't be so disappointed. Few movies deserve a 1 or 2 rating, just as few as deserve a 9 or 10.

Overall this is a decent enough time killer. It's got a good cast, and some wonderful music and scenes. The problem is the story as a whole.

The "monsters" made little sense in terms of the threat the movie wanted to make them portray. Not much thought was put into them other than "we need a monster". While they might be decent as a "Pitch Black" style swarm monster on a small scale, they do not work for what the movie intended. There's just so many things wrong with them.

Add to that the incredibly bad ending, that was clearly a rush job and honestly added nothing to the movie. It was clearly a case of the writers trying to sound wise and simply failing horribly.

This is a movie you can waste a bored afternoon watching, but there's far better ones out there.

After a spell goes awry, Aunt Zelda & Sabrina are forced to reenact A Quiet Place with an 80s B movie creature feature budget, comparatively speaking.

In general, the movie is 'OK', although I'd recommend drinking while you do, so that you are less sober toward the end of the movie.

The acting doesn't spoil the movie. Quite the opposite, it's good. What makes the movie troublesome is how shallow and poorly thought through the storyline is. So 'Vesps' are blind and orient only by sound. The hard reality is that they would die outside in the wild. Animals would make sounds and all be wiped out. Sounds are everywhere; the wind blows = sound. Water flowing = sound.

Also they are found in a cave and then in short order (weeks) the USA is decimated... it is not possible for a species that size to reproduce so rapidly as to cause that. Biology is still subject to the laws of physics and you just cannot give birth to that many creatures in that short a time period. The material that makes them has to come from somewhere... and that just takes time.

And then the seeming inability of anyone in government to coordinate any resistance when quite ordinary people figure out the weakness instantly? I know movies are about the suspension of disbelief, but some plots really push this a little too far...Just put up sirens, nets etc.

But that is actually nothing compared to the last third of the movie when the 'nut jobs' enter the scene (the reverend of the cult).... what the actual f..k? Up to that point the movie was 'so-so', but that just pushed the movie from 6-7/10 stars to 4/10. From Dusk till Dawn handled the plot-break rather well. But this movie didn't.

STAR RATING: ***** Saturday Night **** Friday Night *** Friday Morning ** Sunday Night * Monday Morning

Some deadly bats, with the ability to overpower and kill humans, have escaped from their enclave, and have their sights set on taking over the world. Hugh Andrews (Stanley Tucci) must protect his family, including his daughter Ally (Kiernan Shipka) who suffers from acute deafness, and needs to communicate in sign language, which comes in handy since the terrifying flying beasts react most forcefully to sound.

Horror has become a genre as largely manufactured as pop music these days, an original idea an occasional bonus, secondary to cheap CGI and jump scares. And so, the recent theatrically released A Quiet Place, divided opinion, a creative premise at least, in spite of its outlandishness. Its certainly that film that first springs to mind when presented with The Silence, despite also being a hodgepodge of other such films in the cultural consciousness, including The Mist and Cloverfield.

Despite arriving in its shadow, I'd still consider The Silence the better film between it and AQP. It at least establishes something in the way of human connection with the main characters, and takes the time to develop them in an effective way, meaning we care about them more. Its also easier to digest some flying, killer bats than it is giant, spider like things. Performances wise, Tucci is sturdy and reliable in the lead, strongly supported by Shipka in the crucial role as his deaf daughter.

It's impressive and effective, for a film that manages to cram it all into ninety minutes. While not a perfect film, its certainly a huge step up from a guy whose directorial debut was Mortal Kombat: Annihilation! ***

Based on the concept I was rather surprised that Netflix would venture into material so similiar to one of their other films (A Quiet Place) and so shockingly fast. I can however say this is a different movie altogether, though not really in good way.

Early on I was gripped, fantastically made and looking film where Tucci is on the best form I've seen him since The Lovely Bones (2009). This I thought was going to be something really special, but alas the quality dipped pretty hardcore in the last act.

It tells the story of small winged creatures that begin to besiege the world in a near apocalyptic event. They respond only to sound so the trick is silence (See where the Quiet Place comparison comes in?). The film follows a family surviving in this world, led by father Tucci and daughter played by Kiernan "Sabrina" Shipka.

The cast deliver, the sfx are passable and the whole thing is well constructed but religion takes the stage and ruins the film. Despite being a near theocratic nation I'm still amazed how critical Hollywood usually is over religion and The Silence is no different. It takes a hyper realistic angle here with the religious's interpretation of the incident and it's positively chilling because it's so very believable.

I wish they hadn't gone down that route, though realistic it made for uncomfortable viewing and led the movie to a satisfying yet sudden and rather incomplete finale.

The Silence should/could have been an outstanding film but instead came out as a real disappointment.

The Good:

Tucci is on top form

Some solid ideas

The Bad:

Certain flaws in logic and consistency

Goes in an uncomfortable direction

Basic biology would have it that in their natural environment deep underground, these voracious carnivores must have been feeding on a population of herbivores with at least ten times their biomass. I'm not sure what the underground herbivores feed on, but presumably there's a whole underground flora that gets by without photosynthesis. These herbivores must be pretty ferocious themselves, since they have forced the egg-laying bats to evolve such deadly teeth and talons. Though slower than the bat-things, eventually they too will figure out how to crawl through the same hole to the surface.

So I'm thinking sequel: "The Bleat," in which a race of killer sheep invade the eastern U.S., and every action scene begins with a terrifying "Baaaaa!" At first the desperate humans just try to kill them, for instance by tying cowbells around their necks to attract the killer bats, but eventually our heroes learn to shear them and use the wool to make bat-resistant winter garments.

I enjoyed the movie and I knew it wouldn't be ground breaking, but for those out there like that mook Chris-pacca calling it a rip off of a quiet place, this was based off a novel published in 2015. A Quiet Place screenplay was after that, so if anything John Krasinski borrowed from this movies work.

I enjoyed the acting (especially Stanley Tucci and Miranda Otto but the whole cast is worthy of interest), the photography, the general atmosphere, but I moderately appreciated the last third of the movie. Although the post-apocalyptic atmosphere consecutively to the invasion of huge bats as blind as voracious is rather successful, the atmosphere changes after the meeting with the reverend. This is definitely a key milestone: the movie becomes then surrealistic and almost laughable. This was naively developed: the group formed around the reverend depreciates the film by polluting it.

My rating before the meeting with the reverend: 6 of 10. And after: 4/5 of 10. Frustrating!

The characters behaved logically which is a welcome quality. Main issue with me was the ending was a bit rushed in. And it would be good to know how the scenario turned out on the wider scale. Enjoyed this tense film. Good VFX, and not too much violence relatively speaking. Well produced and a fine scifi story.

If you feel this is familiar to A Quiet Place ... well there is nothing wrong with that. Now if you think that there is something wrong with that as in this movie is copying the other movie(s), then let me tell you: you are wrong! Because this is based on a book and while it was released after the first A Quiet Place, it was shot way before it (came out).

Now that all being said, I see that still most people will see as the inferior production. And that is all fair and ok. Just know what you are getting yourself into. This has some very fine actors in it. The monsters are nice and while the story is predictable, it also has certain things in it, that make a lot of sense ... get rid of things that make noise ... no prisoners taken and all that.

I really enjoyed this. Unlike A Quiet Place, there are other people besides the main family we follow throughout. We knew there were other people alive in QUIET but, besides the old man in the woods, we only know that they existed by the fires ontop of the silos. The only thing that bothered me was what happened to the dog.

This movie is not a rip off of a quiet place. Some may argue that A Quiet Place is a rip off the book on which this movie is based upon. Check the dates on when they were released. A Quiet Place is hands down one of my favorite movies but The Silence is just as good... Maybe better. A family is trying to find a place to stay in order to escape weird super hearing bat thingys. They're not just in one setting, that's what I liked about it. I wouldn't recommend watching this to compare notes. I'd say just watch it with the expectation of being entertained and remember that IT'S JUST A MOVIE, a fictional movie and it's really good.

The machine must be fed - The Silence is an okay movie made for a mass audience, and as all those pay-channels and whatever channels need "stuff" to air, the need for an endless stream of new shows and movies is great. This simply results to that immense output of mediocre to underachieving movies/shows: quantity rules our days and not quality.

Anyway, with the same cast and the same production but a better and more careful composed script and directing, this movie could have been a really good one.

The Silence: only recommendable for the aficionado of the genre (post-apocalypse with alien/monsters), and only if you really got nothing else on the plate.