Hi, I'm Christopher, and I keep hearing about the ending of this Netflix movie, The Silence.
Generally, it seems folks enjoyed the film, but weren't feeling the ending AT ALL. So, since getting my hopes up and inevitably being disappointed is a regular life occurrence for me, I figured I'd give it a go!
Here's how Netflix describes the movie:
"With the world under attack by deadly creatures who hunt by sound, a teen and her family seek refuge outside the city and encounter a mysterious cult."
As the description says, it's about a family's journey when the world is under attack.
The main character is a teenage girl named Ally who lost her hearing in an accident, making her perfectly adapted to a world in which silence is important and sign language is beneficial.
Not sure why, but I LOVE apocalyptic scenarios in films. This "breaking news, we're all in danger" shot automatically reeled me in.
INJECT DISASTER PLOTS INTO MY VEINS.
Basically the news informs the world that some noise-tracking creatures are killing everyone who talks loud, and suggests everyone shut up.
Honestly, everyone shutting up isn't the worst apocalypse scenario.
People are taking the whole silence thing pretty seriously. Here's a woman and her baby being kicked off a train because the child was crying. COLD. BLOODED.
In the midst of a global disaster, when service lines would likely be busy and/or down, Ally somehow has enough bars to FaceTime the guy she's kind of, sort of, unofficially dating.
They say showing the monsters/creatures in films takes away from the scariness, but this movie isn't shy about showcasing the antagonists known as "vesps."
IMPORTANT THINGS ABOUT VESPS:
1. They CAN'T see.
2. They CAN hear. Really well.
3. When they hear something, they seem to swarm and scratch/claw/stab it.
The characters are on the road seeking safety when they encounter danger, and SOMETHING VERY CRAPPY HAPPENS:
Then, for no logical reason, they elect to ditch their car and quietly camp outside instead.
We were promised a "mysterious cult," and we're finally introduced to one, but there are only 26 minutes left in the movie at this point.
It's weird because the movie has kept me entertained, but nothing significant has really happened.
I mean, the mom got scratched by a vesp and we see that vesps store their wombs in dead bodies, but that sums up the past 45 minutes or so.
So, they repeatedly reject the cult leader's invitations and he shows up in the middle of the night, throwing noisily ringing phones through their windows to draw in vesps.
Remember all the tweets I showed you at the beginning of this that said the ending was abrupt/not good? Yeah, they have a point.
Basically, there's a bit of a battle between the family and the cult and it leads to a couple deaths.
Then we're shown a quick montage of the family walking through the wilderness and suddenly they've found refuge and everything's fine, I guess?
They even have Wi-Fi, which Ally is using to chat with Rob, the guy she's kind of, sort of, unofficially dating.
Then we see Ally and Rob in the forest hunting vesps with arrows. THE END.
This movie made it seem like there are A LOT of vesps and they're reproducing quickly, so this feels like the equivalent of going on a mission to hunt cockroaches with a flip-flop, but whatever.
FINAL THOUGHTS:
One word to sum the movie up: Sure.
Best thing about the movie: The cast did great work!
Overall Rating: 7/10 because that's a C, and years back a teacher gave me a C for an essay on Lyndon B. Johnson, because he said portions of it were well done, but a lot of it was fluff and it felt incomplete. Same for this film.
Opinion on the ending: It's probably the worst film conclusion since Netflix's How It Ends. Personally, I can't stand random abrupt endings because they really just
PREVIOUSLY WATCHED:
Black Summer on Netflix
How It Ends on Netflix
Set It Up on Netflix
The Kissing Booth on Netflix
Hell House LLC. on Amazon Prime
Veronica on Netflix
Dude on Netflix
Irreplaceable You on Netflix
