The Quiet Ones (2014) [Movie Review]

The Quiet Ones is the latest in the limitless supply of horror movies based on true stories. In the film, Professor Joseph Coupland (Jared Harris) attempts to prove that ghosts, and any other entity that one could consider paranormal, are actually nothing more than telekinetic energy. He does so by finding sheltered subjects and, simply put, tortures them.

Like I said, this film prides itself in being "based on actual events". So, I looked up the "true story". I found several sources, one of which is a video on YouTube (if you're interested, you can watch it here). I found that there is literally only one thing about the two stories that share any similarities. In the true story, the group created a fake ghost. And in the movie that is sort of present, but is taken down a completely path into Heaven, Hell and cults. I won't expand any further on this, it's just wrong to promote this as a true story.

To expand beyond the immoral promotion of this film, I will touch just a bit more on the writing. To begin, this movie is riddled with jump scares. There are very few scenes that cause fright without the use of loud music or quick movements. And I can't even describe how poor any of the romances in the film were. I will admit that I like the premise of the film, the comparisons to early forms of medicine were great, but it falls flat far too soon.

I would really like to know how with only five characters getting actual screen time, two of them were completely dull in their roles. Fortunately the other 3 cast members more than make up for the lackluster ones.

To give an end to this review, The Quiet Ones is a great idea for a film. With a little better writing, and a little less jump scares, and a little better acting, and a little less "based on actual events", this film could have been great. But, unfortunately, that is not the film we were given.

Rating: 6/10

IMDb Page
Wiki Page