Written by / 4/28/2014 / No comments / , , ,

HAMMER FILMS PRESENTS THE QUIET ONES

year: 2014 rating: **
Ever notice that pretty much anything spoken in a British accent winds up sounding intelligent?

Well this is the case of the legendary and now revamped HAMMER FILMS, who years ago brought already-established icons to life ranging from FRANKENSTEIN to DRACULA and recently reentered cinema with THE WOMAN IN BLACK, to use the "documenting handheld camera device" but with a more clever twist.

Plot has a England University Professor Joseph Coupland, played by Jared Harris, hiring a fresh and naive student, Sam Claflin's Brian McNeil, to film an experimental paranormal research taking place inside a rural building...

The experiment centers on a young girl named Jane, who could very well be demon possessed, and along for the ride are two more kids: a flirtatious blonde girl and another young man... These two seem like the typical victims served up in any horror flick while the pivotal Brian is the blank slate/non-believer, so everything we experience will be through his eyes, and lens.

The handheld scenes occur either for the moment or as archive footage viewed by teacher and students within the grungy confides of a makeshift labyrinth... Their ultimate goal is to watch the changes occurring outside (and inside) poor Jane, and then try pinning down that naughty spirit causing all the havoc. Meanwhile, Brian has become smitten with the subject, and the professor, with a grand touch of sleazy sinister about him, has his own personal desires.

While much of the film is grainy and retro, there are sporadic bursts of intrusively modern CGI, causing an awkward imbalance that throws the intended super-reality out the window... And being set a year after THE EXORCIST haunted theaters, several mentions are made of it, a possible attempt to distract anyone from calling this a pale imitation...

Unfortunately, that's all THE QUIET ONES amounts to... Beyond the all-too-familiar demon possession, the scariest scenes entail, ironically, quiet moments that suddenly burst with a plunder of noisy bedlam, none of which amount to a worthy hypothesis or conclusion.
Share This Post :
Tags : , , ,

No comments:

Post a Comment

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.

All Time Popular

Featured Post

DEFENDING THE BREEZY SEQUEL 'BREAKIN 2': ELECTRIC BOOGALOO'

Title: BREAKIN' 2: ELECTRIC BOOGALOO Year: 1984 Rating: *** Cannon Films' BREAKIN' 2: ELECTRIC BOOGALOO  was rushed out the same...

WWW.CULTFILMFREAKS.COM

WWW.CULTFILMFREAKS.COM
Movie Reviews, Interviews, Articles and Pop Culture from White Heat to Blue City

RIP ACTOR KEN HUTCHISON

TOTAL HITS

Popular Trending

FOUNDED BY JAMES M. TATE

FOUNDED BY JAMES M. TATE
RANDOM QUOTE: "Yeah, and the devil serves lemonade, right?" David Proval, Kojak

FILM NOIR & NEO NOIR CRIME

FAVORITES SHORTLIST

1)OTLEY 2)HELL IS A CITY 3)ROBBERY 4)THE FEARMAKERS 5)CANYON PASSAGE 6)VIOLENT SATURDAY 7)HOT CARS 8)THE BREAK 9)THE CROWDED SKY 10)THE ROARING TWENTIES 11) ANATOMY OF A MURDER 12)CALCULATED RISK 13)SWEENEY TWO 14)RAIDERS FROM BENEATH THE SEA 15)HARDCORE 16)JUNGLE STREET 17)WHITE HEAT 18)AL CAPONE 19)MODEL SHOP 20)FALLEN ANGEL 21)SHARKS' TREASURE 22)THE ASPHALT JUNGLE 23)ASH WEDNESDAY 24)THE SYSTEM 25)AIR PATROL 26)THE STONE KILLER 27)SANDS OF THE KALAHARI 28)WILLIAM CONRAD'S BRAINSTORM 29)RIOT 30)THE MAN FROM LARAMIE FAVORITE ACTORS 1)DANA ANDREWS 2)JAMES CAGNEY 3)STANLEY BAKER 4)MARLON BRANDO 5)JACK NICHOLSON 6)CHARLES BRONSON 7)BURT REYNOLDS 8)WILLIAM LUCAS 9)TOM COURTENAY 10)GENE HACKMAN DIRECTORS 1)JACQUES TOURNEUR 2)RICHARD FLEISCHER 3)VAL GUEST 4)STANLEY KUBRICK 5)OTTO PREMINGER 6)ORSON WELLES 7)JOHN GUILLERMAN 8)JOHN LANDIS 9)SAM PECKINPAH 10)MICHAEL WINNER

BRITISH NEW WAVE CINEMA

RARITIES AND EXPLOITATION

HAMMER HORROR & THRILLER

Popular This Month

CHARLES BRONSON CINEMA

CINEMA OF DANA ANDREWS

WESTERN GENRE REVIEWS

PEAKING INTO THE SIXTIES

KICKING IN THE EIGHTIES

TALES AND REFLECTIONS

REVVING THE SEVENTIES

Most Popular Last Year