The Silence is a 2019 Netflix horror film directed by John R. Leonetti, starring Stanley Tucci and Kiernan Shipka. The film is relatively similar to another Netflix project, Bird Box, starring Sandra Bullock, which came out only a few months after the release of John Krasinski’s A Quiet Place. All three films bear a fair amount of similarity, but the two Netflix ones do appear to only exist in an attempt to coast off of the success of A Quiet Place. However, both Bird Box and The Silence were based on novels, by Josh Malerman in 2014 and by Tim Lebbon in 2015 respectively, which does force one to question just how original Krasinski was in coming up with A Quiet Place when it only came out in 2018.

Leonetti’s film is a very entertaining watch, not because of its technical quality, but because it is equally absurdist and nonsensical. The actions of the characters and monsters in the film often don’t make sense and are regularly inconsistent. The premise of the film follows the outbreak of an ancient species that has been trapped underground for millions of years. The species, referred to as vesps, resemble a cross between a bat and the alien from Ridley Scott’s Alien (as many movie monsters tend to do). They are blind but have superior hearing, and attack with the intent to kill every organic being that makes a sound.

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The film follows a family who is able to communicate with each other silently through sign language because their daughter became deaf a few years prior in a car accident. The state that the family lives in is quickly becoming overrun with vesps, so the movie shows their journey to where they believe they will be safe. Watching the film will leave a viewer wondering “why” after many of the decisions made by most of the characters. In addition, the vesps sometimes hear things, and at other points do not hear the same sounds. They are more interested in a piece of metal than repeated gunfire, and they attack at the hiss of a rattlesnake but do not hear a main character talking on the phone.

In a genius act, Tucci’s character turns on a woodchipper, and since it is so loud, quickly attracts many of the vesps which are then killed by flying into it, but for whatever reason, Tucci then decides to turn it off and does not turn it on again for the remainder of the film. This seems like an excellent way to eradicate a great number of these creatures, but apparently the characters in the film don’t see it that way. The movie is riddled with similar moments which all combined practically make the movie a comedy, and so watching the film in some ways is a nice break from the seriousness of the Academy Awards Best Picture list that everyone has been trying to fit into their watchlist lately.

However, there is an additional issue with the film for those who understand sign language. The actor who plays the deaf daughter, Shipka, from this film does not appear to have much of a grasp on ASL (American Sign Language). According to those who understand ASL, Shipka’s use of it is barely grammatically correct, and this moves the film from comedy adjacent to a comedy outright. There are also points in the film where she appears to not be aware her dog is barking when looking right at it, and at other points appears to be able to hear things like the dog barking despite not looking at it, amongst various other errors.

the silence family shot Cropped

But what is most disheartening about this, is that these issues could have been easily avoided had the creators of the film used an actor who was actually deaf, like Millicent Simmonds in A Quiet Place. Leonetti told The Hollywood Reporter, “[Shipka] learned to sign for the film and now she’s flawless like she’s been signing her entire life. She seems to have an almost innate sense of what it’s like being a deaf person.” According to Deaf In Media, who are actually deaf, and actually know ASL, this is a completely false statement.

To be fair, A Quiet Place is not a perfect film either. Krasinski and his real-life wife, Emily Blunt play the parents in the film, who even after the death of their youngest child, decide the best course of action is to have a baby even further into the apocalypse. Additionally, it seems odd that with so much investment in science and the military, eventually, someone would have figured out a solution to sound-based monsters (maybe even using a bigger woodchipper).

In conclusion, A Quiet Place is likely the best of these three movies in terms of filmmaking technically, but Bird Box and The Silence are both an enjoyable one-time watch even if it’s just to make fun of them. What is somewhat interesting to think about, is that Stanley Tucci, star of The Silence, is married to Felicity Blunt, who is Emily Blunt’s sister, who is married to John Krasinski, who both star in A Quiet Place. One has to wonder what Christmas Dinner with them is like after The Silence came out.

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