Speak No Evil (2013)

SPEAK NO EVIL is an indie horror/mystery with a small town setting. The story, which isn't bad, is about the disappearance of a number of innocent kids who soon return to their families, somehow...changed. There are a few minor grisly moments but mostly this is amateurish boredom with unconvincing actors struggling through underwritten parts. Generally, this is a poor addition to the 'killer kid' genre.

I found this to be a genuinely surprising horror; not that possessed children is a particularly new concept, but rather in the way their threat is treated and revealed to us. In the opening moments, a flurry of activity involving a briefly seen horned creature abducting young Joey Girl (Olivier Cavender) from her trailer park home occurs while her mum Anna (Gabrielle Stone) is in bed with her current beau Creighton (Carl Jensen IV). At first it seems that her wayward past has made Anna into a scapegoat for judgemental and very religious townsfolk, who assume she is simply a bad parent and Joey has run away – but it's a different story when all the children in the neighbourhood disappear too. And then one day, they come back.Yet something is wrong and the children become increasingly feral. Joey, the only injured youngster, has had her tongue removed and soon begins to exhibit sporadic possessed episodes that increase in frequency. Soon the whole town is in the grip of fear and marauding, demonic youngsters. Things have reached this point so quickly, as does the descent into animal behaviour as the possession grows in intensity; events become hard to follow. But I get the feeling this is a deliberate decision of behalf of Director/Writer Roze to highlight the sense of chaos such a rapid decline has caused.Children – apart from Joey – are rarely treated as individuals, rather a pack of animalistic hooligans. Pivotal moments like the death of loyal, quiet Creighton happen quickly and without fanfare. Blink and you'll miss it. This approach is highly unusual in general, and for horror in particular, where such moments of graphic violence and spectacle are usually dwelt upon. Here, we waste no time on incidents – rather, we cut away and move onto the next occurrence.I enjoyed this unusual, choppy film. The very simple effect of hollow eyed children with black vomit around their faces and clothes is extremely effective – as is the briefly seen demon itself.

For such a small budget, this film delivers fairly well. The actors made do with what they were given and carried it along smoothly.Acting isn't the only spice required in a good film. Plot is important also, and here it's thin at best. I actually like that they didn't bother to try explaining things. It gets pretty cliché to me when the writers throw in some convenient explanation delivered by some Native American medicine man, or some psychic who is drawn into the area by the bad vibes, or the crazy old priest who used to read up on demonology in his early days... You've seen it. They didn't bother with it this time, and that was actually fairly refreshing to me.Unfortunately, those are the only two points I can make that work for this film. The rest is fairly sub par. Overall, the film fails to pull you in because it superficially makes use of everything else. There is no depth to the development of the characters or treatment of the environment.What do I mean by that? Let me give some examples.For starters, the director relies heavily on shaky camera work. This sort of thing is designed to pull you into the action, but at it's worst it fails to give you a lasting impressions because you haven't really seen anything at all! You've only seen shaky flashes of action, bits and pieces of character expression, etc. Nothing sticks because you fly through it too quickly. Hence, it means very little to the viewer.Secondly, the sound is heavy and brooding, ALL THE TIME. Despite what some reviewers say about things starting slowly, the reality is that in terms of music and ambient sound, there is simply no room to breathe at all. From start to finish it's the same thing. It's like having a weight put on your shoulders all day long, after a while you get used to it and then you don't think about it any more. So without that change of ambiance, everything sort of blends together, nothing is distinct and new.Thirdly, the children are under represented. Even though this movie is about possessed children, they seem to fall by the wayside in terms of importance. They are all dressed the same. They all have the same make-up on. They all act the same. Most all the girls are blonds, most all the boys have longish hair (with the exception of one boy who seems to have a mohawk or something). Each kid, including the heroine's daughter, gets precious little screen time. Only perhaps two children in the entire movie get any lines (and they are short). Their faces are almost never really focused on, and even when they are the make-up gets in the way. Couple that with the shaky camera work and you almost never really truly see them at all! ***Small spoiler included in next line*** What we have here is the objectification and eventual dehumanization of all the children in the film. It's easy to kill what you don't consider worthy of your affection. It makes it a simple thing to dismiss the fact that children are being killed, and if you don't care about them then there's no real point to the movie.

Totally not what I thought, quality-wise anyway.I'm trying to review this in a way that won't bias you going in. So don't start with high expectations and it will work out as a better experience.It's runtime is a bit over an hour, but that's not at all what it feels like.For a $150,000 budget, I expected a lot less. Maybe the director/writer didn't take any immediate pay. Either way, 8/10 for this product on that budget.Roze maybe could have used some help with the writing, but it isn't bad, I've seen far worse from plenty of big budget movies.As far as direction goes, put Christopher Nolan on video instruction manuals and sub in Roze FTW. After watching, imagine what this guy could do with 150 mil... (vid manuals are more than Nolan deserves). I'm going to watch his earlier works, even though according to reviews, it seems that the writing needed more work then too, maybe he got better lol.