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Have you seen The Silence on Netflix yet? All I could think was that it felt a little like Bird Box, but also a lot like A Quiet Place. Both of which were, in my opinion, better.
I was all set to like The Silence, though, because Tim Lebbons’ book by the same name, which the movie is based on, got rave reviews. Rave. 4.3 out of 5 stars. Speaking of 5 stars, 59% of the reviews are 5 stars. That’s a good book. Ratings like those are hard to come by.
But, as often seems to happen, the book might be better than the movie. (I say “might” be because I haven’t personally read it yet.)
Similarities
Here’s what The Silence shared in common with A Quiet Place and Bird Box:
- The removal of a sense. In A Quiet Place, he who could stay most silent, lived. Same with The Silence. Bird Box took away sight, but the principle was the same. Take away a sense most of us take for granted to exacerbate the horror of the situation.
- An apocalyptic event. In all three movies something major suddenly happened to shift Life as the characters once knew it. We don’t really get to see that beginning in A Quiet Place. We do in both Bird Box and The Silence.
- Children. How to survive complete Life upheaval with kids is portrayed in all three movies.
- There are creatures/stalkers. We don’t get to see whatever it is that preys upon humans in Bird Box, but we get to see the creatures in both A Quiet Place and The Silence.
Differences
- How the apocalypse starts. We don’t get to see it all start in A Quiet Place. We get to see the characters reacting to a sudden change of environment when the Stalkers (for lack of a better word) show up in Bird Box. The Silence starts us out with seeing how, when, where, and why the creatures start swarming the Earth.
That’s really the biggest difference. There are other minor ones, but basically they all have a lot in common.
Rating
Like I said, I was all set to like The Silence. I really wanted to. But I didn’t.
I liked the characters and the acting was fine, but the storyline and situations felt forced and somewhat predictable. The scene with the snake was too convenient, not to mention silly.
And I thought it veered into weird territory with the cult guy. Why would anyone think about re-populating the earth or creating a harem when babies make noise and what you want to do is keep as silent as possible? There had to be better ways to keep the plot exciting and moving than that.
So, nope. I wasn’t a fan of this one. It gets two out of five skulls from me.
Courtney Mroch is a globe-trotting restless spirit who’s both possessed by wanderlust and the spirit of adventure, and obsessed with true crime, horror, the paranormal, and weird days. Perhaps it has something to do with her genes? She is related to occult royalty, after all. Marie Laveau, the famous Voodoo practitioner of New Orleans, is one of her ancestors. (Yes, really! As explained here.) That could also explain her infatuation with skeletons.
Speaking of mystical, to learn how Courtney channeled her battle with cancer to conjure up this site, check out HJ’s Origin Story.
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