SOUND OF SILENCE movie poster | ©2023 XYZ Releasing

Rating: Not Rated
Stars: Penelope Sangiorgi, Rocco Marazzita, Lucia Caporaso, Daniele De Martino, Chiara Casolari, Peter Stephen Wolmarans, Alessandra Pizzullo
Writers: T3 – Alessandro Antonaci, Stefano Mandalà, Daniel Lascar
Directors: T3 – Alessandro Antonaci, Stefano Mandalà, Daniel Lascar
Distributor: XYZ Releasing  
Release Date: March 9, 2023 (VOD, digital)

SOUND OF SILENCE is brought to us by T3, a writer/director trio consisting of Alessandro Antonaci, Stefano Mandalà, and Daniel Lascar. The group divides up other individual creative positions, with (at least for SOUND OF SILENCE) Antonaci as cinematographer, Mandalà as production designer, and Lascar as stunt coordinator.

This suggests a lot of teamwork that could go either way. In this case, it adds up to a visually stylish ghost story that makes up in jump scares what it lacks in plot complications.

Margherita (Alessandra Pizzullo) and Peter (Peter Stephen Wolmarans) are a nice middle-aged couple living in a pleasant, somewhat isolated two-story house in the Italian countryside. Peter likes to tinker with fixing up old technology, which can be found all over their home (check out the manual typewriter and rotary phone, for starters).

So, when Peter starts repairing a ‘30s-style radio in his attic workshop, it seems like no big deal – until a ghost appears, coming closer every time the radio makes a sound.

In an American big city (we know this because the clock radio cheerily broadcasts, “Good morning U.S.A.!”), Margherita and Peter’s daughter Emma (Penelope Sangiorgi) freezes up on a singing audition. We gather from her boyfriend Seba’s (Rocco Marazitta) reaction that this isn’t the first time.

Before Seba can get too far into the “You’ll nail it next time” pep talk, Emma receives a phone call that both of her parents are in the hospital. She of course is on the next plane to Italy, accompanied by the devoted Seba.

The doctor thinks that Peter has been abusing Margherita and she fought back, but Emma can’t believe it, and we know better. Margherita tells Emma not to go to the house, but since mother doesn’t tell daughter why she shouldn’t go to the house, Emma decides she and Seba will stay there.

We can guess a lot of what’s going to happen, although the food truck in the absolute middle of nowhere is an interesting touch (not being conversant with the placement of such businesses in Italy, this reviewer cannot ascertain whether this is normal or not).

What makes SOUND OF SILENCE work is that, despite the general familiarity of the story, the T3 filmmakers create an environment that’s legitimately spooky.

There’s also a consistent visual aesthetic. Even though we’re mostly in the present, there’s a spareness and sepia tones in the art direction and cinematography that suggest the old-fashioned tone is deliberate.

SOUND OF SILENCE doesn’t try to reinvent the horror wheel. It just wants to be reasonably creepy without being dated. In this, it succeeds.

In English and Italian.

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