Haunters of the Silence is the kind of movie that you very seldom come across. It’s not a regular horror flick, yet it has traces of scary scenery and psychological terror. It’s not totally incomprehensible as some art-house cinema can be. Yet it’s just that, an art-house horror that really balances on the edge of what can be done with a camera. Of course, if you think about it in absolute terms, anything can be done with a camera, including taking only black shots, but that’s not very entertaining is it?
Haunters of the Silence is a film where the story isn’t very obvious to begin with. I think you get clues as we go along and if I didn’t know beforehand that the intent was to capture the nightmarish landscape between the wake world and the dream world, I’m not sure if I would have figured it out. Come to think of it, I’m not even sure I have figured out what I thought I figured out.
But that’s the beauty of it. I think each one in an audience will see their own movie in the collection of imagery and sounds. Some are pretty straight forward while others are very open to interpretation. For instance, there are several sequences which I see as Rorschach patterns. It’s something that looks like a mix of spider web, tree tops, fire, smoke, and subliminal imagery. Just the fact that I see it as Rorschach ink ought to tell you something. I see all kinds of things before my inner mind during these scenes. Everything from pictures of God to haunting images of long lost love or nightmarish hallucinations. But the point is not what I see, the point is that each and everyone has power over their own thoughts.
I don’t believe there’s any right or wrong here. It just enhances what you already think and how you interpret the narrative. I think it’s gorgeous and a genius way to sell the story. Not that I know, but I think that whichever version you see during these sequences you will fall into the same basic emotion. Everything is soaked in loss and sorrow and the haunting is something that is in the mind or the protagonist. But, of course, as I said before, that’s my way of interpreting things.
That’s also the danger with a film like this. If you want a very specific feeling to communicate with the audience it’s a bit of a gamble. On the other hand Haunters of the Silence is a film that you can discuss and think about for days after seeing it. That’s a definite strength in the world today where everything should be so fast paced all the time so no one has time to get exhausted by boredom.
I’m not saying that Haunter of the Silence is boring, quite the opposite in fact. I enjoyed it very much and I think it’s a film that will last in the consciousness of people for a long time. There’s so much symbolism to be interpreted that you could watch it multiple times and still find new angles in it. But at the end of the day, for me, the angle that makes most sense is that of loss and grief.
There’s not very much voices present in the movie. There are some, but mostly in the form of reciting a poem or when the news is on TV and things like that. The main character lives in his own little bubble. The Cinamatography is beautiful and very inventive. And the whole production is mysterious enough to try to find an answer to it all. There’s none to be had though, other than in your own mind, where you might be as trapped as the character in the movie.
You can watch the trailer here!
