Silent but deadly

I think what I liked about the first twist that is offered is equally as immediate but it's more benign. We learn that our protagonist is profoundly deaf. It's not partial hearing loss. She cannot hear a thing. Which includes a masked murderer banging on her window. But what I really enjoy about this is before you start the movie, you understand there's a cat and mouse element. We have a killer and we have his prey. Once we learn there is a glaring disadvantage for her, we are forced to respond. And what tweaks this in just the right way is the fact that we, the audience, have a unique vantage point in the middle of it all. We are seeing and hearing and feeling the entirety of the confrontation and have to deal with the fact that we have no agency to provide assistance. We are simply required to watch and hope. It's a ten year old movie so I'm going to offer at least some minor spoilers and that's your warning. The friend we meet in the opening sequence is brutally murdered just minutes later. There's a very tangible quality to it. She enters the scene. There's an exchange with our protagonist. It's entirely pleasant. She exits. It seems mostly like a way to add a layer of depth to the casting and does play a part in a later intervention in the story. But when she shows back up, it's under duress from the attacker. She's bloody and screaming. But her death, as vicious as it is, is almost as brief. There was a very Scream-esque quality to the kill. Simple white mask. Gigantic knife. Palpable physical intrusion of the blade. Gruesome. Much like many of the other elements of the film, it doesn't dawdle in fright. Here is the threat. It's very real. It's literally at your doorstep.

One of the other early elements I also sincerely enjoyed is in the initial confrontation between protagonist and antagonist, he acknowledges one simple piece. "I can come in whenever I want." I like the recognition of this. There are a significant number of windows and glass doors in the house. It would not be difficult to make your way through a locked door. If murder tops your list of activities to do tonight, vandalism is certainly not beyond your purview. But I appreciate that they note it for two reasons. First, without saying anything about it, you're left holding this understanding that there's no reason for him to feel stuck outside the house. It's hardly a fortress. If this piece is omitted, the audience is left squirming with this revelation that there's no reason for him to be outside the glass cage. But by him specifically noting it, in the best and most creepy delivery he can, it puts the hunt into overdrive. The knowing that refuge isn't truly what she thinks it is means she can never find a place to truly feel safe. She's not protected, she's trapped. One simply line of dialogue invites you into the madness and confines you in her space left to wonder when and where he's going to make a move. And he enjoys this. It just layers on the sadistic nature of his person. He has no back story. There is no rhyme or reason. He just shows up and kills.

I think my favorite piece in the whole film comes int he prelude to the finale. Maddie (admittedly had to look it up) employs her writing techniques to establish a plan of action. When she realizes her injuries are going to prevent her from running, her only option is to fight. But how is she going to do this. I really enjoy the misdirect used to insinuate that she tries to escape and is caught and killed. In the moment it seems real. But obviously you quickly realize what's actually going on. She hasn't met an early demise. she's plotting. It's the first time we hear her in the movie. It's her internal monologue now. Her deafness is accompanied by muteness as well. But having entered this state at age 13, the voice in her head is implied to belong to her mother. It's not her own adolescent voice. It's one of authority. Which fits the moment. She's been a victim this whole time. She's being reborn as her own opposing force and this is a wonderful turn in the film. I know in many instances the fright derives from the inevitability of intrusion from an opposing and impending entity. Michael Myers keeps on coming. Freddy gets you when you're vulnerable. Zombie are relentless. Spirits deal in otherworldly abilities. Whatever the villain, there's an untenable aspect to their intrusion. Until the victim claims their space and stands up. Sometimes I cheer for the monster when the cast is useless. Kill them all, I don't care. This is why it's so important to me that you be able to find some character to latch on to. With such a limited cast, Maddie is our only potential anchor. And by the finale, her transformation is both tangible and meaningful. This makes the movie for me. She didn't start out as a final girl, but she becomes one and it ends the movie spectacularly.

I think there are two pieces to the film that I didn't care for. Both are small and one is just my own preference. So lets start with the smallest thing first because I've mentioned things like it before. At one point in the movie, we have the entrance of an additional player. The first woman, Maddie's friend, who is murdered has a significant other who comes looking for her. He is confronted by our villain and pretends to be a police officer. It's a great scene where an additional layer of tension is applied and builds within it's own right. But in this little narrative sidequest, the conflict reaches culmination right before a hero can emerge and he is knifed in the neck. A twist ensues where he wrestles the man to the ground and begins choking him. Now, realistically I know that the movie ends poorly if she runs out and hammers him in the face or grabs a kitchen knife and stabs him several times and the film just ended there. I get that. But it still makes me angry that she stands there and just sort of lets the moment pass as though the drama is meant to overwhelm her senses and leave her confused with what to do. I get that the choice not to act there propels her towards the satisfying conclusion. It's just on par with when characters knowingly do stupid things to further the plot. Fight or flight is a tricky one to nail down with logic. But again, we are the audience. Yes, we're in the midst of this but we've had clarity and agency the whole time. This is when you want to shout at her not to run away as her momentary savior is attempting to provide said exit as he clings to the last moments of his own life. But the moment passes and she does nothing. It's a choice and it was a frustrating one. It didn't ruin the movie. As I said, it's a small notation. But it bugged me and that's what this is for, right here.

My other small beef is I felt like we ditched the mask too quickly. That's just my own preference. I appreciated the choice to do that. Even the means by which we achieved this space was done well. Mike Flannagan knows his way around genuine fright and horror you can hold in your hand. Maddie's plea is that he simply leave because she hasn't seen his face. In this sequence, he slowly removes his mask to ensure she has. His reveal is intentional. Now you have seen my face. Now you're responsible for that information. You see me. I see you. It's terribly intense and well done. So I don't take issue with the way it's done. I think it's handled in the best way possible. And I like that he didn't rely on the "spooky" persistence of the mask like they do in Scream or especially in The Strangers. The masks are meant to keep scaring you but eventually it just gets old. Michael Myers and Jason Voorhees exist in their masks. That is their identity. The fact that you don't or can't see them, at least the vast majority of the time, is what creates and maintains their persistent mystique. This transition from unknown to known is purposeful and it creates a forced intimacy that elevates the plot. So, like I said, the execution is perfect. I just would have liked to linger for a little while longer in the unknown to see if maybe prolonging the reveal doesn't tease that measure of fright in a little more pronounced fashion.

Clearly I liked this movie quite a bit. I think I arrived at my first A-. I'm not going to go back and look through them al to verify. But I don't have someone I'm stealing credit from in that notation so I'm fine with shooting from the hip. I sincerely enjoyed the film. I know some folks might be mad at me for giving something like Silver Bullet a full on A and this one an A-. I honestly don't even know why the minus feels applicable. But all this really revolves around a gut feeling an that's where this one seems to land for me. It was well made with minimal mistakes or negatives so it's clearly in the A range for me. But a couple of the choices just didn't work for me. Not that I need to justify my scoring. If this is an A+++ movie for you then I'm happy. It was an excellent movie and I have plenty of wonderful things to say about it. I'd be curious to hear a commentary on it from the director but not enough so to feel like I need to own this one. Maybe if I come across it in the wild some day and it's a good price it might make the shelf. But for now I'm content to enjoy it in the way that I did and move along. Which is what we'll do. We have passed the halfway point in the month. We are officially on the downward slope towards Halloween. So far I do really feel like this year has had some really excellent entries and I'm quite satisfied with how 2026 has shaped up in it's first half. Hopefully we keep that momentum going on the back nine of this endeavor. So with this one in the can we'll wait and see what tomorrow brings. I'll catch you on the flip side.