SILENCE CAN BE KILLER. 

Deaf writer Maddie Young (Kate Siegel) lives by herself in a house in the woods, with a neighbor (Samantha Sloyan) as her only close company; one late evening, they’re attacked by a masked killer (John Gallagher, Jr.). Married couple Mike Flanagan and Siegel came up with the idea for this thriller on a dinner date. Reminiscent of many stalker movies (especially Halloween), as well as the blind-woman-in-jeopardy classic Wait Until Dark (1967), the story strains credibility. But the director finds the right tone and level of tension from the start and keeps us hooked throughout thanks to clever plotting, an eerie staging and compelling performances by Siegel and Gallagher, Jr..

2016-U.S. 81 min. Color. Widescreen. Produced by Jason Blum, Trevor Macy. Directed and edited by Mike Flanagan. Screenplay: Mike Flanagan, Kate Siegel. Cast: Kate Siegel (Madison ”Maddie” Young), John Gallagher, Jr, (Man), Michael Trucco (John), Samantha Sloyan, Emilia Graves.

Trivia: First shown at South by Southwest, then released on Netflix.

Last word: “Sound design really sells a movie so we were discussing ways to make sound design more of a character on a script level. To really make sure that sound design is something that gets the weight it deserves. The opposite of that is to remove sound from the main character, since you have to balance that somewhere else in the movie. […] I think that at the beginning Maddie being a deaf-mute was something that was more of a script challenge. Then as we started to meet this woman we realized  that it was a real benefit to character development, tension and things like that. We could do things that we couldn’t do if your character could speak or hear.” (Siegel, Bloody Disgusting)

IMDb