Greenes Please don't spend money on this.
Protraph Lack of good storyline.
Huievest Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.
The Movie Diorama Parapsychological thrillers will always interest me. Blending supernatural tension with the complexity of psychology can make for some intriguing themes, many of which may be deemed as thought-provoking. This horror film however, falls short in most areas. Loosely based on the Philip Experiment, a university professor and a group of students experiment on a girl to prove that poltergeists are manifestations of the human psych as opposed to supernatural entities. Sounds interesting right? Correct, and this should've been more intriguing than what was actually executed. My attention was immediately drawn to the experiment. The psychology behind it rather fascinates me, and I appreciate that the screenplay dabbles into the morality and ethics of this test. At the end of the day they are torturing a girl and coagulating all of her negative energy into creating a fictitious character, whether you view that as inhumane of scientifically necessary is left for debate. The script involves you, allowing you to cast your own opinion. Just a shame the characters were incredibly one-dimensional and the thrills were non-existent. The jump scares consisted of extremely loud piercing noises. That was it. I had to pat my sound bar at the end of the film and say "it's alright, you can rest your speakers now...it's done". Harris gives a commanding performance and both Cooke and Claflin him well. But again, the script doesn't allow any character development to be had. The small use of visual effects were uninspired, but given the extremely low budget I'll let it slide. Then we get to the concluding act and unfortunately it crumbles under its own weight. I would've preferred a more intelligent ending as opposed to a clichéd supernatural twist. It's not that I didn't like it, I just don't necessarily agree with how it was conveyed. It's a shame really, director Pogue had some decent material to work with yet somehow translated what should've been a thrilling horror into an unmemorable bore.
Michael Ledo Oxford Professor Joseph Coupland (Jared Harris) leads a pair of student researchers plus a camera man, known as the "quiet ones" to discover and cure the insanity of Jane Harper (Olivia Cooke) through experimental means. Dr. Coupland believes Jane has "negative energy" that manifests itself into telekinetics which can be controlled to cure the patient. Belief in the supernatural is not tolerated.During the process, Brian (Sam Claflin) the camera man develops mutual feelings for Jane who has an imaginary demon named Evie. The time frame for this film is 1974 and it makes use of Slade's "Come On Feel the Noise." Early in the movie, the funding for the experiment gets cut so Brian volunteers to use cheaper lower quality film, just what I wanted to hear. Part of the movie is amateur hand held genre while some of it is not.The film scare factor doesn't pick up until about an hour into it. It then has some bad minor clue twists which didn't help the film's cause.Might work as a cheap rental. Not overpowering.Parental Guide: 2 f-bombs. Implied sex. Brief nudity.
jdegeling The story behind this film is original and well written. The actors are well known and very good at what they do as well as the director. I would not say this was not a horror movie, but it most certainly was a well organized psychological thriller. It has a relatively slow beginning but grows to be more and more intense through out the film. So if you liked "The Shining", "Paranormal Activity" and "Sinister", I highly recommend this film. Also, If you don't like a particular genre of movie, please don't rate it! It spoils it for others who are looking for a good film. Ex " This movie was too scary" or "i generally don't like..." If you never liked the genre to begin with, chances are you wont like the movie... So don't give it crappy ratings giving false impressions to others!!! Some genres just aren't for you!!!
eddie_baggins Another new addition to the revitalized Hammer horror production line up, John Pogue's The Quiet Ones failed to reach the heights of Hammer's far more accomplished and well received reimaging of The Woman in Black from 2012 and completely flopped on release both critically and commercially. With many deriding The Quiet Ones on release and with a lowly score from audiences you would expect this horror venture to be scarily bad, but in a surprising turn the film is a lot more effective than one would suspect even though it's potential was still far from reached.Another horror story inspired by actual events, the greatest strength of The Quiet Ones is in the telling of it's at times believable story, you're never absolutely sure on what exactly is occurring in the sense that there is either a rational explanation behind events or something far more sinister. Going the route of some old school found footage format in major places of the film also works well, unlike most modern day set found footage films where footage seems to be shot at the most inappropriate of times, the home movie filming here ads to the tension of the experiments taking place and never gets in the way of the actors who are led well by the ever good Jared Harris.Harris is another reason The Quiet Ones works to the level it does. Oft given tame ing turns (Pompeii anyone?) Harris shares leading man duties with Sam Claflin's (who all girls would no doubt know as Finnick Odair from the Hunger Games) cameraman Brian, as dogged professor Coupland who is hell bent on finding a cure for the troubled/possessed young lady Jane Harper. Harris is a nice anchoring presence in a pretty fiery role while Claflin to has good moments as Brian. Director Pogue may fail to fully capitalize on the scares available to him with this story but there are enough jolts and jumps throughout to suggest that you'll think twice about sleeping with the lights off.The Quiet Ones is a small, effective little horror that never achieves any major heights to do anything that hasn't been seen before but there is enough within its intriguing story and enough power in its cast to overcome most major hurdles that occur with many such modern day horrors, that mainly being that they just aren't that scary. With a nice lead turn from Harris and some unpredictable turns, you could do far worse for your newest horror fix.3 untypical baby dolls out of 5 For more movie reviews and opinions check out - www.jordanandeddie.wordpress.com
