THE QUIET ONES Almost Put Me To Sleep

The Quiet Ones director John Pogue took a risk – inviting the viewer to follow along with Professor Joseph Coupland’s (Jared Harris) “experiment” to prove that the supernatural is simply a manifestation created in the minds of the mentally disturbed. What Professor Coupland and his team didn’t expect was a genuine haunting.

The Quiet Ones was unexpected, different. However, while it had some enlightened qualities, it unfortunately fell short from what I’d deem a “good” scary movie. As a long-time horror enthusiast, I expect a lot from the modern horror genre. Sitting in the dark, watching this film, I felt little emotion and no real sense of anxiety.

A Different Experience

A friend of mine went to see it the weekend it was released. If only I had gone with her, as her experience sounded truly frightening. But amusingly, it wasn’t the movie itself that scared her.

I wish I could retell this with as much enthusiasm as she conveyed to me, but I’ll try. Along with her little sister, she went to a late night viewing in the theater. Halfway through the film, she saw what appeared to be a woman, unsteadily climbing up the theater aisle, hunched over, her face cloaked by a black hood. Of course this had to happen during a stressful scene, and she sat down directly behind them, breathing heavily. For the remainder of the movie, my friend had to grit her nervousness not only from the movie, but also of the disturbing lurker behind her. She told me that they rushed out of the theater when the credits began to roll and buzzed about the experience all the way home.

The Good

I rated this film a 5 out of 10, which is being kind. But I can’t completely discredit the film, as there were some redeeming honorable mentions. For one, I thought the title was interesting. You know the old sayings: “It’s always the quiet ones,” or “Watch out for the quiet ones.” In this case, they’re the students who help Professor Coupland with his experiment. What do they do all day locked up in that old house?

The student cameraman, Bryan McNeil (Sam Claflin), was believably concerned. He seemed interested in the “experiment” at first, but after witnessing the frightening effects on Jane Harper (Olivia Cooke) and Coupland’s intentions turning out to be less than moral, McNeil becomes emotionally attached to Jane and wants to rescue her from her imprisonment.

Shadows and darkness are used in several scenes to evoke insecurity. I admit, I was startled when doors opened by themselves, and when Jane escapes up to the attic – the only light coming from our frittering cameraman. It was dark, eerie, and created suspense. But soon that feeling was gone and the story went flat again.

Without revealing the ending, the film did include an interesting plot twist. We discover who Evie really is and the link to all the terrible happenings in Jane’s life. It was unexpected and actually quite inventive.

The Bad

Although the film was supposed to be old-timey feeling, the effects just didn’t do it for me. The way it was shot in some scenes as a documentary were shaky and unfocused. Because any action was few and far between, there was no sense of urgency; no suspenseful buildup. A loud clamor was just a noise. When the actual haunts did begin, they were short and uneventful.

The story itself developed poorly. There were cliché themes and no real haunting dynamics. Haunted dolls, poltergeist activities, and inexplicable symbols are overdone in movies. Another unnecessary overarching story was that of the love affairs developing with no purpose. Professor Coupland comes off as a dirty old man, seemingly lusting after every young female he runs into. The only redemption to this love theme was the connection between Jane and Bryan, which felt real and desperate.

Just as I indicated above, I won’t spoil the ending for you but it was terrible – all around one of the worst and more predictable endings. I’m sure the director wanted us to feel startled, but satisfied. I was just glad to see it end.

Dark, but Disappointing

It’s interesting how the environment in which you watch a film can affect your impression of it. My friend found The Quiet Ones chilling; I found it hollow and predictable. But her experience was disrupted by an outside factor that exaggerated any sound or image coming from the screen, therefore the dark felt darker and the dread was literally breathing down her neck.

Though the shadows and lack of light played with my senses in certain scenes, they didn’t excite me enough to watch the film from behind a pillow. All in all, The Quiet Ones did not impress me as a modern haunting film. The plot was dull, the ending was lackluster. But it made me realize environmental factors play a bigger role than we realize. Why else would we spend money to go to the dark, quiet theater but to willingly suspend our disbelief and hope to fall deep into the world created on screen.

Have you seen The Quiet Ones? What were your thoughts? Let me know in the comments.