A reformed hunter living in isolation on a wildlife sanctuary becomes involved in a deadly game of cat and mouse when he and the local Sheriff set out to track a vicious killer who may have kidnapped his daughter years ago.
“The Silencing” begins with a mesmerizing aerial shot of a dead body floating down white rapids. Rayburn (Nikolai Coster-Waldau) is a former hunter-turned-caretaker of a wildlife sanctuary. He’s introduced disarming two young hunters who are trespassing and making the immoral choice to hunt on the protected land. On their way out, his car needs a jump and the young punks drive off before offering assistance. While Rayburn sighs, he pulls a bottle of whiskey from the passenger seat and takes a big swig.
Sheriff Gustafson (Annabelle Wallis) arrives at a crime scene being handled by her fellow officer Blackhawk (Zahn McClarnon) whose jurisdiction is the neighboring county. Gustafson’s brother Brooks (Hero Fiennes Tiffin) is covered in blood from a bar fight and blames it on girl trouble. While the estranged siblings share an awkward ride, Brooks pleads for her to change the route home and through some heavy-handed exposition we can tell something bad happened along that route. It’s sloppy writing and a huge plot hole that the sheriff and sister of a victim would forget such a traumatic event.
Back at the sanctuary, Rayburn, in a drunken stupor, has forgotten about his arrival of elementary students eager to learn about his protective work. He handles the tour relatively well but an obnoxious kid interrupts Rayburn’s dissertation and reveals more about the protagonist’s past. His daughter has been missing for five years and he still posts fresh missing posters on telephone poles. Back with the sheriff, she’s joined by forensics and they’re examining the corpse from the opening aerial scene. Upon further investigation, they determine the woman was hunted for sport with the killer leaving markings on trees as a hunter would. Rayburn is determined this is connected to his missing daughter and begins to get more involved in the case.
I love the premise but the delivery is mostly a misfire. The screenplay has way too much exposition and backstory crammed into such a short running time. I appreciate trying to make the small cast fully rounded characters with histories and personalities but it’s more than the story can handle. I think if the script could have reworked Gustafson and Brooks, this could’ve been an excellent serial killer/survival story. Belgian director Robin Pront has been directing for a little while now and he seems to prefer shooting in muted colors with the woods being a prominent location. I like his style and it’s technically well-made but I wish the script had received a rewrite.
The cast is half good, half bad. Coster-Waldau does a decent job of covering his Danish accent and is mostly believable as a man tormented by grief. I wish there was more use of McClarnon’s character Blackhawk. He’s a fascinating actor and has been memorable in projects like “Fargo,” “Barkskins,” and “Westworld.” There’s some thrilling hunter versus hunter moments and the killer’s choice of weapon is very cool. He uses an ancient tool that slingshots spears with speeds up to 100 miles per hour. To recommend a film in the same genre I’d recommend William Friedkin’s “The Hunted” or the classic “First Blood.”
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