Speak No Evil (2013)

The biggest problem with this movie is it’s a little better than you think it might be, which somehow makes it worse. As in, it takes itself a bit too seriously, which makes most of the movie feel kind of dull.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

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.

While the concept of demonic possessed children does have a certain sense of dread and horror about it, "Speak No Evil" didn't fully exploit the potential that it had at hand.The story starts out a bit slow, but quickly picks up pace and gets into gear with lots of things happening. Although a lot is happening, it is not difficult to keep up with the story, because it is done chronologically and in a well-presented manner.What didn't really work about the movie was that it came off as too shallow, as if the director didn't really delve into the many layers that were made available by the concept of the movie. And as such, the end result was a rather hollow experience at best.The characters in the movie were fairly one-dimensional and never really got to portray any proper characteristics and that just made you didn't care about the protagonists or anyone else for that matter.Acting-wise, then "Speak No Evil" was adequate, but the actors and actresses were fairly limited by the script and the direction. Again, the potential wasn't fully taken advantage of here either.As for the ending. Well, let's just say that it was alright, although is very just oozing with a cliché ending for a horror movie. But the ending worked out well enough for what it was.The best part of the movie had to be the children. I mean, demonic possessed children running rampart in a small town killing and maiming the inhabitants. And the eyes were actually one of the more interesting things about the entire movie. I liked the thing they had done with the children's eyes.For a horror movie, then "Speak No Evil" was a fairly poor experience. It wasn't scary, nor was it particularly interesting or appealing.I am rating the movie a mere 3 out of 10 stars.

This may look like some generic horror, but it's better than that. I just expected a dull para/slasher that I could stick on in the background whilst doing some real-life stuff.I kind of missed the beginning, this film started to grab me about 20 minutes in, there's some nice touches in the camera work - more than competent, visually this is a cut above the rest, the soundtrack tethers well to the "action" - another thing I liked, there was a much more low-key approach to the meat and gristle of the movie and some very effective costuming.Would watch again :)