Movie Review: The Silence (2019)

The movie stars Stanley Tucci, Kiernan Shipka, Miranda Otto, Kate Trotter and Kyle Breitkopf.

After a few days full of both ice skating and dance commitments, my wife and I actually had an evening at home last night. And, since we had time to do so, I decided to watch this movie with her.

I wasn't really sure what to expect from this film. On one hand, it sounded like it could be creepy while, on the other hand, I'm always a little skeptical when a film doesn't have many recognizable actors/actresses. But, I figured, at minimum, it would give a few chills. As it turns out, however, it kind of fell short of that minimum.

First, I want to say I liked the premise of this movie. While I'm still a little puzzled how a group of predators could survive being entrapped in a cave for millions of years without dying out from starvation, the idea of mankind being quickly wiped out by flying killing machines was plausible enough for me.

And, I did find I liked the "vesps." Not only were they creepy looking, they had a pack mentality. This meant, if you made even the slightest sound, you were quickly fending off more than one. I also liked how they used corpses to hold their eggs though, once again, it did make me wonder how they pulled that off when they were underground.

I did, however, have two major complaints about this movie. The first was the fact the Andrews family really failed to make a good impression on me. This is especially true of the dad (Tucci) who just seemed to be void of any emotion or even a conscience. I mean, at one point, his actions directly caused the death of another character (albeit a character who was only on screen for a few seconds) and it didn't even seem to bother him. I would be able to accept this if they had been living in a post apocalyptic world for years. But, this was only a few days after the problem started.

I also found I just wasn't that interested when the movie added the Reverend (Billy MacLellan) and his cult. This might have been different had he been introduced earlier in the film, giving the movie time to develop the subplot and maybe give us a little more background about the Reverend and his followers. Unfortunately, it just felt like it was thrown in at the last second and didn't have as much of an impact as a result.

I liked the premise and the "vesps." However, this movie really needed some stronger acting from the main characters and a little better execution overall.

My Grade: C