THE QUIET ONES (2012)

THE QUIET ONES (2012) 

Label: Lionsgate 

Rating: PG13

Duration: 98 Minutes 

Audio: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1

Video: 1080p Widescreen (1.78;1) 

Director: John Pogue

Cast: Jared Harris, Sam Claflin, Olivia Cook, Erin Richards

The Quiet Ones starts off with some promise as Oxford Professor Joseph (Jared Harris) sets out to prove that the seemingly supernaturall manifestations observed in young mental patient Jane (Olivia Cooke) are manifestations of the mind - and not of supernatural origin. Along for the ride are three of his students - we have the cameraman Brian McNeil (Sam Claflin), and the professor's two assistants - the catty sex-kitten Krissi (Erin Richards) and her lover Harry (Rory Fleck-Byrne). The experiments are conducted at an isolated house off campus and are designed to draw the negative energy from Jane and direct it into a doll in an attempt to "cure" her. Methods range from talking sessions to seance-styled gatherings around the table right up to depriving her of sleep by blasting Slade and T.Rex tunes into her room - none of this seems very scientific and is pretty inhumane.

Jane says that her manifestations are from en entity known as Evie and her outbursts become increasingly aggressive as an invisible force slams doors, knocks out the power, boils water and blisters skin. The experiments continue just the same and nice guy cameraman Brian begins to have feelings for the young woman but things quickly escalate when it is discovered that Evie was the victim of a devil-worshiping cult. 

The film is set in the 1974 and tries to combine elements of supernatural haunt films with the found-footage aesthetic as it stitches together 16mm footage shot by Brian - the effect proves to be distracting to say the least. The film looks great with some moody cinematography but the shaky-cam effect does not suit the supernatural themed film in my opinion. There's some nice Gothic elements and some decent eerie sequences but when it goes found-footage I just found it irritating. 

That said I'm hanging with the film despite that quibble until the final third of the film when the film just goes off the rails and lost me completely. It's not a total loss, I do like the set-up and the story idea but the execution is seriously flawed - it needed to settle on a specific tone and see it through. 

The cast is strong, we have Jared Harris who is a fantastic actor but is seriously slumming it here in my opinion. Then we have Olivia Cooke from Bates Motel as the troubled mental patient who turns in a decent if not stunning performance, sort of felt she was wasted here - the material is just too one note for anyone to really do anything with it. 

The Blu-ray looks great as you would expect of a modern HD films - the non 16mm cinematography looks great - the drab Oxford scenery and muted color scheme suite the story just fine - how the films looks was never an issue. The 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio does the job nicely - the title The Quiet Ones is pretty funny when you realize just how much screaming fills the running time. 

Extras include a 30-minute making of documentary, audio commentary, a featurette about the opening credit sequence, deleted scenes and a gag reel. . 

Special Features:
- Audio Commentary with Director John Pogue andProducer Tobin Armbrust
- Welcome to the Experiment: The Making of The Quiet Ones Documentary 

- Manifesting Evil: Visual Effects Featurette 

- Deleted Scenes
- Gag Reel

I didn't love The Quiet Ones but it's a decent enough watch with some typical haunted house jump scares - worth a watch but I can't see re watching this one again which is a sad shame as I've been loving the string of chillers we've seen from the new Hammer Films prior to this. If this sounds like something you wanna watch it arrives on Blu-ray and DVD August 19th from Lionsgate. 2.5 Outta 5