Director: Scott Jeffrey
Year: 2020
Country: United Kingdom
Alternate Titles: Silent Place
Genre: Creature Feature
Plot:
Heading out on a road-trip, a dysfunctional family looking into a potential sign of distress from their parents, but when they find the house empty and no one around they decide to stay and investigate where they discover a race of humanoid mutations has escaped and killed everyone forcing them to fight them off.
Review:
This one was somewhat better than expected and had a lot to like about it. One of the finer features here is the atmospheric work featured here which manages to make this quite more suspenseful than it should be. With the majority of the action taking place at the remote house in the middle of the night, there’s some genuinely atmospheric and chilling shots of the fog rolling through the landscape towards them while various animal growls and stalking are heard in the distance which goes nicely with the setting of the abandoned houses and missing individuals. As hardly anyone is aware of what’s going on and the resulting unaware nature of the creatures or what they are, it only adds to the whole setting of the film in general.
This fine setup-work goes nicely with the films’ enjoyable amount of creature action present. The opening attack on the people in the house serves to get it going nicely with some creepy stalking and a brief glimpse of the creatures, while the later discovery of the creature up in the attic as it rests unaware of the girl until it chases her through the house and outside leading to several other min-encounters along the way is the best sequence in the effort. The final half, which introduces a contagion subplot that spreads to its victims reveals some great carnage in the body-melting scenes to go alongside the creature attacks which are surprisingly brutal and gory, has a lot to like about it. As well as the stellar look of the defromed creatures, these are what hold the film up.
The film does have some minor issues about it. The main thing holding it back is the lagging pacing which tends to undo a lot of the atmosphere at play here with the film taking a bit too long to get to the good parts. The investigation here is the biggest factor, as the scenes of them wandering through the house, visiting the neighbors or going into the abandoned town serve to build up the mystery and atmosphere nicely yet are played out in such lethargic tempos that it’s likely to leave viewers bored at the situation rather than creeped out. As well, there’s also a rather curious feature where they manage to figure out the creature’s backstory through urban legend rather than believable means and it strains credulity to have operated in that fashion, leaving this one with its main flaws.
Overview: ***/5
A worthwhile and enjoyable creature feature that works nicely when it counts and has enough to hold itself up over its flaws, on the whole this ends up as a watchable if not necessarily mandatory genre watch. Give it a look if you’re a fan of these kinds of creature features or a follower of the creative crew, while those looking for something more than just a mediocre watch might heed caution.
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