Silent Retreat (2013)

Sent to a retreat in the woods, a troubled woman is sent to a retreat in the middle of the woods where she finds the owners are secretly brainwashing women into being obedient wives and feeding the rejects to a deranged creature nearby and tries to get away alive.This one was quite an intriguing if really flawed creature feature. Among the better qualities here is the way this one builds up the really intriguing premise of the retreat out in the middle of the woods run by the sinister family that enforces a strict series of rules on them for their beneficial behavior. It's rather interesting how it manages to build this in the first half as there's the rules in play that simply make no sense yet creates an atmosphere here where it's all about ensuring the supposedly-perfect spawning ground for their secret agenda which is one of the more dark and sinister motives here for covering up their tracks, yet still manages to create the kind of fun here wallowing in this chilling atmosphere with the silence, refusal to acknowledge anyone and the general state of forced serenity created makes this a quite chilling set-up. Once it gets to the later half and there's the fun of the creature thrown into the mix that not only makes for a solid storyline addition as well as helping to aid in his mission this one does become a lot more fun with the additional body-count added to the creepiness displayed by the set-up as the first encounter out in the woods rescuing her friend leads to the action-packed massacre of the girls in the cabin as well as the aftermath of cleaning up after it which makes for some even better fun throughout here. As well, that leaves the ending confrontation quite thrilling as well with plenty of fine encounters that are rather bloody and really kick this one up somewhat. These here are what hold this one up over it's few minor flaws present. The main feature holding this one back is the utterly bland and boring beginning half which is quite low on action as it just tends to focus on the setup of the secret cult or her trying to adapt to the rules of the place which are just utterly bland and really keep the film pretty slow-going in this part of the film and keep the creature off-screen during this time. While that occurs, it's also quite a relief since the creature here is a complete joke with many really bad flaws about it, namely the awful look of the thing which is clearly hampered by it's low-budget nature but also the just weak design as well since it looks really lame and has a weak prosthetic look that doesn't help it much even if that wasn't the case. These here really hold this one back.Rated R: Graphic Violence and Language.

Well, well. Looks like someone gave a movie camera to a feminist.Original story. Started out very well. And then the girls started talking.The movies goes downhill from there.If they had edited out 10 or 12 lines from this movie, I would have given it a 7.5 instead of a 5.But they brought in this whole angle about how no one listens to women and they are oppressed and forced to obey men.At first I really identified with the women/prisoners but in the end I was begging for them to get bumped off. This is a tremendous irony because instead of developing sympathy for the oppressed women, we end up wanting them to be killed... quickly and quietly. By the last 10 minutes I suspect even the Pope would want to smack them.The worst part is the protohumanoid monster, who in the end spares the bitchy protagonist as it is revealed that the monster too, is a woman complete with a suckling baby monster.I kept waiting for the film maker to insert anti male scenes of the perpetrators sexually assaulting the prisoners or leaving the toilet seat up, but was spared, thank God.The movie makes a big deal about screaming. "We scream so that others know we are alive."Three quarters of the way through the movie, I was screaming for the film projectionist to have a heart attack and spare us the ending .Another decent movie ruined by Left Wing "I am a victim" overtones. Do yourself a favor. Skip this one. If this movie was made 30 or 40 years ago it may have been relevant, but in an age where women are given special treatment under the law and graduate from college in greater numbers than men, not so much.Oh God, when will film makers stop trying to teach us social lessons and get back to entertainment?

I've heard some good thing about this movie, so I give it a chance (even tho AfterDark movies are usually hit or miss).While it started out OK, then turned weird since it had no dialog for the first 20 minutes or so (which I actually liked), it sacrificed it's premise for more of a standard movie, because message has to be heard, right?and the feminist(ic) overtone in this movie are so obvious that it really start to hear your ears. While I have no problems with some feminist tones in movies like Stepford Wifes (original): it had feminist ideas within the story, but it still treated itself like sf horror movie, but in Silent Run? Hell no! Most of the dialogues consist of usual feminist tropes like "We are so oppressed, no one wants to hear us, man want to change us" to the point that movie become too annoying. Every man in this movie is complete psycho who want women to bi silent, obedient and "perfect" wives for themselves who must be at kitchen (they also want girls for their wives purely based on their looks!). They even showed the "woman in kitchen" mame image treating it like serious thing for brainwashing young girls. I am not even kidding. Creature itself that happens to be in the woods for some reason is also a female (also in sign of feminism).Robert Nolan is only saving grace, he is really good in most of his scenes. Other two lead actresses are also rather descent, it's not their fault that movie is so absurd.There are some FX scenes which are well made, descent amount of gore for this type of movie (maybe even too much), some blood. Creature design was descent, but not too original, you'll swear you've seen it in some other movie.Ending was ridiculous with needless fight scene at the end, because hey, you must satisfy the casual audience (who will probably be bored by then anyway). If movie ended with strong emotional scene that happen before it (also, applause for two lead actresses, it was carried purely on their acting, because script didn't do anything to root for any of their characters), it would end on high note, but nope, let's do the generic fight scene and end the movie.Honestly, if this movies wasn't "So-obviously-feministic" movie, I would probably like it more, but I really couldn't stand annoyance of majority of lines being "we are so oppressed by those evil man"... or at least keep your feminist views at minimum and don't use your movie as way to express your own socio-political ideas. Look how Stepford Wives turned out (which I actually liked). It managed to poke at feminist ideas, but it was still enjoyable, creepy and "legit" horror movie. It was never used as a way to spew ideas right into audiences faces.

Janey (Chelsea Jenish) is a trouble child. And for her efforts, or lack thereof, is sent off to a remote retreat for nonconformist girls under the guidance of a doctor (Robert Nolan) whose methods are ….a bit radical. The Doctor, and his staff of male accomplices, uses hypnosis and other extreme techniques to get their subjects to comply with their rules that command their patients to be completely obedient through deafening silence. Failure to obey the directions beyond their imposed 'two-strike rule' will result in the subject being fed to a lurking creature that inhabits the surrounding woods.Janey is hardly the conformist. And her rebellious attitude towards the retreat's rules and regulators eventually lead to unavoidable confrontation. But with other girls simply disappearing, Janey must weigh her defiance against the risks of being overpowered by either the male administrators or the evil yet to be revealed from the outside.Director Tricia Lee makes her feature film debut with Silent Retreat and shows a high degree of talent in transitioning genres. The film's opening scene is unquestionably horror, but the film switches gears and takes more of a dramatic path for the middle act focusing on Janey's relationship with fellow prisoner Alexis (Sofia Banzhaf) and the regimented retreat rules. We got lost ourselves for a while forgetting for a few moments that there was something mysteriously lurking within the forest. A mysterious something that reveals itself in the film's final chapters reminding us that Silent Retreat is horror plain and simple.Characters as portrayed by Chelsea Jenish, Sofia Banzhaf and Robert Nolan are perfectly cast as they lend their combined talents to a tale that all three seem committed to pulling together. Lee does not seem to be in rush to allow blood splatter consistently through the film's full 95-minute running time and instead uses her DVD chapters wisely to form a setting and atmosphere that the film will heavily rely upon.Silent Retreat won Best Canadian Film at the 2013 Toronto After Dark Film Festival, but you can remove the "Canadian" from the award plaque and you would still be left with a viable and enjoyable film worthy of our attention.www.killerreviews.com