“The Silence is Incredibly dumb. Very bold. Absolutely absurd and hilarious.”
The Silence is a movie that premiered on Netflix recently starring Stanley Tucci and Kiernan Shipka. It is a blatant ripoff of ‘A Quiet Place‘ in almost every imaginable way. But that isn’t why I am writing this, I am reviewing this movie because I want to discuss the absolutely insane third act that had me laughing at its absurdity.
In Pennsylvania a team of cave researchers open a sealed mine which contained swarms of bat like pterodactyls who hunt via sound. They spread very quickly, attacking anything that makes noise. Our main character, Ally, lost her hearing in a car accident a couple of years prior so her family can sign. As news of the attacks spread (approximately two days at most) Ally and her family decide to flee their home and seek refuge somewhere else. I have to emphasize that this is around two days into this entire ordeal. Your typical horror tropes of Ally’s family getting attacked and escaping with your usual twists and turns occur over the course of maybe 2 days. So now we are looking at *maybe* 4 days into this ordeal.
Ally’s family finds a cabin in the woods with high fences and ends up movie in. The Internet still works and Ally learns from her boyfriend that the monsters can’t survive the cold and that a cult called ‘The Hushed’ is popping up. So Ally and her Dad go into town for some antibiotics and bump into a guy in all black with his tongue cut out. He’s dumb and creepy and really out of nowhere. He asks them to join and they walk away.
Well here is where the movie gets insane! The cult follows them to their house and creepy cult leader asks (he writes on a notepad) if Ally is fertile. Seriously. Now they want her because somehow her being deaf allows her to kind of sense when the monsters are nearby but more importantly…
IT HAS BEEN 5-7 DAYS AT MOST AND THIS CREEP IS ASKING IF YOUNG 16 YEAR OLDSWITH HEARING LOSS ARE FERTILE???
This cult while being reprehensible and terrifying has the greatest social media and planning committee ever. Did they have pamphlets on this going around years ago? “Hey guys if sound monsters attack, cut your tongue out and look for young deaf girls to kidnap.” The planning and leaps in logic here are astounding and hilarious.
So anyway, the cult sends some young girl with cell phones strapped to her into the house and sets all the alarms on the phone off which attracts monsters. They try and kidnap Ally and after some fighting and a sacrifice all the good people make it North to the refuge and learn to live in a world of silence.
Seriously though, the most underdeveloped cult twist I have ever seen. Incredibly dumb. Very bold. Absolutely absurd and hilarious. I rewound it to make sure I didn’t miss a “Six Months Later” cue or something. Nope. That cult mobilized in 5-7 days. I tip my hat to them for their promptness and organization.