Sound of Violence
MAJOR SPOILERS...
A young girl named Alexis loses her hearing due to some (unspecified) emotional trauma, only for it to return at the further trauma of seeing her father murder her mother. Jump ahead to 'now', and a twenty-something Alexis is a university music student, specialising in experimental sound composition. She also suffers from synesthesia (seeing sounds as shapes and colours) - but only in relation to sounds of human pain and suffering. It's a condition she finds addictive, going to increasing extremes to experience it. Unfortunately, with signs that her hearing may go again, the clock's ticking for her to experience as much of it as possible before she's no longer able. It's a great premise. Unfortunately, first time director Alex Noyer bungles it...
1) Alexis lives with Marie, another student at the university. Right from the off it's clear there is a sexual chemistry between them, even bordering on parody (remember that scene in Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle, where we all thought Cameron Diaz and Demi Moore were going to kiss?). It's clearly meant to be an 'is there-isn't there' thing, but ends up as 'there obviously is'. Yet it plays absolutely no purpose. Whether Alexis and Marie are 'involved' or not doesn't change a single thing. Okay, Alexis gets a little jealous of a guy Marie has been seeing, and makes him her next victim. But it doesn't need to be him she kills; there's no payoff because it's him, it could be literally anybody. And when Alexis and Marie do finally declare their love for each other, 15 seconds later Alexis attacks her!
2) Alexis's line of corpses (understandably) attracts the attention of the police. Enter the grimly determined Detective Sonya Fuentes. Every now and then we cut away from whatever's going on with Alexis to catch-up with Fuentes and her investigation. But again, it plays no purpose. Fuentes never catches Alexis. She never even comes face-to-face with her. This movie would not play out any differently if Fuentes wasn't in it. Her inclusion doesn't introduce a 'race against time'; it's already a race against time, as Alexis is losing her hearing!
3) Alexis's torture/killing devices would give Jigsaw or any Batman villain a run for their money. They're interesting - but at the end of the day all she needs to do is inflict injury and death on someone to experience the shapes and colours of their suffering, and to record it for use again later. A hammer and an iPhone would have done the job.
None of this, of course, would matter in just 'some dumb, slasher flick'. Unfortunately, it's clear that Noyer was aiming for more than that.
Good cinematography and performances (especially Jasmin Savoy Brown and Lili Simmons, as Alexis and Marie) scrape this a 5/10.
MAJOR SPOILERS...
A young girl named Alexis loses her hearing due to some (unspecified) emotional trauma, only for it to return at the further trauma of seeing her father murder her mother. Jump ahead to 'now', and a twenty-something Alexis is a university music student, specialising in experimental sound composition. She also suffers from synesthesia (seeing sounds as shapes and colours) - but only in relation to sounds of human pain and suffering. It's a condition she finds addictive, going to increasing extremes to experience it. Unfortunately, with signs that her hearing may go again, the clock's ticking for her to experience as much of it as possible before she's no longer able. It's a great premise. Unfortunately, first time director Alex Noyer bungles it...
1) Alexis lives with Marie, another student at the university. Right from the off it's clear there is a sexual chemistry between them, even bordering on parody (remember that scene in Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle, where we all thought Cameron Diaz and Demi Moore were going to kiss?). It's clearly meant to be an 'is there-isn't there' thing, but ends up as 'there obviously is'. Yet it plays absolutely no purpose. Whether Alexis and Marie are 'involved' or not doesn't change a single thing. Okay, Alexis gets a little jealous of a guy Marie has been seeing, and makes him her next victim. But it doesn't need to be him she kills; there's no payoff because it's him, it could be literally anybody. And when Alexis and Marie do finally declare their love for each other, 15 seconds later Alexis attacks her!
2) Alexis's line of corpses (understandably) attracts the attention of the police. Enter the grimly determined Detective Sonya Fuentes. Every now and then we cut away from whatever's going on with Alexis to catch-up with Fuentes and her investigation. But again, it plays no purpose. Fuentes never catches Alexis. She never even comes face-to-face with her. This movie would not play out any differently if Fuentes wasn't in it. Her inclusion doesn't introduce a 'race against time'; it's already a race against time, as Alexis is losing her hearing!
3) Alexis's torture/killing devices would give Jigsaw or any Batman villain a run for their money. They're interesting - but at the end of the day all she needs to do is inflict injury and death on someone to experience the shapes and colours of their suffering, and to record it for use again later. A hammer and an iPhone would have done the job.
None of this, of course, would matter in just 'some dumb, slasher flick'. Unfortunately, it's clear that Noyer was aiming for more than that.
Good cinematography and performances (especially Jasmin Savoy Brown and Lili Simmons, as Alexis and Marie) scrape this a 5/10.