Netflix Movie Walkthrough: The Silence

Juliana Rivas

Are the movies on Netflix any good? Especially in the horror genre. I don’t know about you, but it’s been some time since I’ve genuinely been satisfied with a horror movie from Netflix.

So, imagine my surprise when I find this 2019 film called The Silence. Its main plot is about a deaf girl and her family trying to survive when cave-dwelling creatures that hunt by sound start attacking the cities in America.

I enjoy watching creature features, such as Pitch Black, The Thing, Jeepers Creepers, and The Cabin in the Woods. However, I do enjoy watching different genres and sub-genres of horror movies. Creature Features is something for me to watch while cleaning the house or cooking dinner. It’s a genre I can watch without feeling paranoid and frightened afterward.

Oddly enough, the audience of this film is divided. You either like it or hate it. I can understand both sides.

The movie is based on a book written by Tim Lebbon. It was sitting on the rhetorical shelf for many years but was eventually picked up by Netflix and released in 2019.

The audience has called this film a mockbuster and compared it to a popular 2018 film with similar plot points and antagonist monsters. But it was created years before A Quiet Place was released.

The beginning lets the audience know how the antagonist creatures are released to the outside world. A duo of cave explorers discovers a new cave system by busting through layers of a sealed cave and end up releasing thousands of winged creatures from the darkness. They are ancient creatures trapped underground that evolved to survive in a cave-like environment. They are blind and hunt their prey by sound. Later in the film, they are named vesps, after Avispa, the Spanish word for wasps, because of the way they swarm their prey.

The film’s main character is a deaf girl named Ally, who lost her hearing in a car accident. She communicates through sign language and reading other people’s lips. She is bullied at school for her inability to hear, but it doesn’t bother her that much. She starts to walk home from school, and her potential love interest Rob catches up with her. As he’s walking her home, he shows Ally he’s learning sign language to better communicate with her. They make weekend plans together to help Rob find a car.

The scene switches to her father Hugh’s workplace. He works with his brother Glenn.  Hugh confides in Glenn; he wants Ally to choose a university close to home. He believes she cannot survive in the world on her own.

Once Ally returns home her concerned mother, Kelly, ambushes with questions over her whereabouts and relationship with Rob. While her grandmother, Lynn, looks on in the background. Her parents view Ally’s deafness as a disability for her to take care of herself and continue to coddle her. Either by preventing her from going to a university away from home or not wanting her to kiss a boy. Her mother continues to talk to Ally.

Then something distracts Ali from the conversation, the family dog Otis barking out the window. The hairs on his back are standing straight up, indicating a dog in attack mode. This is the first time any of the Andrews family is clued into the dangerous happening miles away from their family home.

Later on, Ally becomes aware of what is happening and has her first look at the creatures. On her tablet, Rob shares a video of a horde of vesps in the air. Then the whole family becomes aware of what is happening when the local news broadcasts the story that Pittsburg, Philly, and close small towns are being attacked. One news channel claims things are under control, and everything is a rumor blown out of proportion. At the same time, another shows a video of mutilated bodies on the street, people running in panic.

Then the New Jersey news broadcasts a video of a mother in her car holding a sign that says don’t make noise while her son is in the back seat with duct tape on his mouth. This is the big clue for the public, and fortunately, the Andrews family has a big advantage since they all know sign language, even Ally’s little brother Jude.

The family decides what the next step is to survive. Hugh says to listen to the news and stay indoors. It’s not until Ally mentions that cities are the worst place to be in due to the creatures being attracted by noise. They decide to pack up and leave the city. As they are driving away, the city looks to be in mayhem.

A cutaway scene shows how people in the city are handling the situation. A group of people are trapped in a subway car trying to keep quiet. A fussy baby starts crying, causing tension to rise in the subway. The baby is thrown off the train along with the mother. She distances herself from the train, trying to calm her baby, when she hears strange sounds coming from the end of the tracks. She causes the baby to start crying again, causing more attention of the vesps to the woman and those in the subway, who honestly have no chance at surviving. It is hard to control the sound made by so many people. There will be screams, shouts, cries of terror, thus leading them to panic and die.

For some reason, the internet is still working, letting Ally know about the vesps and keep in contact with Rob. Rob and Ally facetime where they reminisce about their weekend plans and make a promise to stay in touch through it all.

The following day the Andrews family is met with traffic. They decide to go off-road and towards the backroads, away from civilization. With Glenn leading in his Jeep followed by Hugh and his family in a van, they are on an isolated road. Overhearing on the radio that the vesps have spread to more states. Glenn is cut off by a herd of crossing deer, leading to him swerving and rolling down a hill. Hugh rushes to his bother discovering his leg crushed by the door hindering him from escaping the wreckage. Glenn realizes he’s trapped and understands there is no help coming. Glenn requests for his guns and convinces Hugh to leave him behind and find somewhere safe for his family. Before he goes, Hugh makes a promise to return with help.

Back in the van, Ally sees Otis let out many aggressive barks and the hair on his spine stand up straight, a warning of the impending danger. Ally shouts to turn the engine off, much to her parents’ confusion, Hugh does. As they all sit and wait, looking around for any potential danger. Otis is still barking when a single vesp attacks the window, followed by many more. Soon the van is surrounded due to Otis’s barking.

Down the hill, Glenn hears the screaming and starts firing his gun trying to gain the vesps attention, which he succeeds, causing the vesps to quickly overpower him, eating him. After Glenn’s sacrifice, Otis continues to bark gaining back the vesps attention. Causing Hugh to make a hard decision by letting Otis out of the van towards his death in order to save his family. The majority of the hoard is gone but only one vesp remains. Any attempt to start the car will lead to their death.

Hugh causes a distraction by setting Glenn’s wrecked car on fire. This leads to them heading out on foot, trying to find some shelter. Having taken a break Hugh and Ally have a heart-to-heart about Otis’s death, and Judd finds a cabin nearby. Here they encounter the owner of the house, an ignorant old lady, wielding a shotgun yelling out for them to leave her property.

Her shouting brought the attention of the vesps leading to her death. While the vesps feed on her corpse, Hugh sneaks through a drainage pipe to the other side of the fenced property. His family soon follows through the drainage with Judd leading and Kelly finishing. Judd is faced with a rattlesnake causing a vesps to venture into the pipe. The lone vesps save Judd from a snake bite but another outside soon attacks Kelly.

Hugh turns on a woodchipper to distract the remaining vesps, the creatures stupidly going towards the noise leading to multiple of their deaths. Although Kelly is injured, everyone makes it to the house alive. Her wound becomes infected quickly and, without antibiotics, won’t make it for long.

The internet is still working, allowing for another facetime between Rob and Ally. Though this time, Robb looks distraught, covered in dirt and breathing heavily. Things have changed in the city. Rob discloses that his parents are dead, causing Ally to be upset. Tears are gathering in her eyes, telling Rob to find her where it’s safe. Unfortunately, the call disconnects, leaving ally distressed.

Hugh and Ally are forced to go to the local pharmacy in search of antibiotics. Inside the pharmacy, they discover half-eaten bodies used as nesting spots for the vesps. As Hugh finds what is needed, a few creatures fly inside, sniffing the air trying to detect the disturbance in their nursery.

Ally spots a fire alarm; she explains to her father for them to escape to they need to use the fire alarm. Hugh sets a mop on fire which triggers the alarm, the blaring sound causing the few vesps to fly around in confusion.

As Hugh and Ally sneak back outside to safety they come across a creepy priest, waiting for them. He wants them to join his flock known as the hush. As they try to leave the priest blocks their path again and again. Finally, they can get away from the crazed priest, as they walk away, he opens his mouth showing his mutilated tongue.

Now that Kelly has given her antibiotics, she is starting to heal up. Ally finds out that the vesps cannot survive in the cold, civilizations in the far north are surviving. On the other hand, huge civilizations are disappearing, disconnecting from the internet, called the grey.

On their doorstep, the priest and his followers show up smiling, asking them to join the hush. Hugh tries to reject their offer again calmly, but the priest is adamant, even mentions that Ally is fertile. This causes Hugh to use the shotgun to threaten the priest off the property. But Hugh and the priest both know he can’t use the gun without alerting the vesps. Fortunately, the priest and his followers leave for the night.

Ally can still keep in contact with Rob, he tells her he’s heading North to the Refuge. Before he can disclose the location, the internet cuts off. While Ally is in her room, a little girl is on the doorstep and allowed in. she is secretly a part of the hush. She’s strapped with a bunch of phones to her abdomen set with an alarm.

There are even some tapped on the outside windows, all this commotion gains the vesps attention. Hugh collects as many phones are he can, dunking them in water silencing them. The vesps still attacking the windows of the house. Some even breaking in, causing the women to rush down to the basement. There they are ambushed by more of the hush all dressed in black.

The attempt to capture Ally and the family tries to fight back but are eventually overpowered. The three hush members take Ally with Lynn following after them. She tackles the attackers and holds them down while Ally rushes away from the huddle. Lynn makes the final sacrifice play by screaming out while holding down the men. The vesps descend onto the group ending the struggle.

Ally is taken by the priest this time the whole family attacks with silent weapons. Judd stabs someone, Hugh using the empty shotgun and Kelly a knife. Throughout the struggle, Hugh gets stabbed by the priest but finally finishes the fight by beating the priest to death.

After that, the family makes the journey to the refugee, where they make it safely. In the north, there is a body of a wolf with eggs in its carcass. Along with a flying vesp protecting the nest. But the vesp is killed by an arrow wielded by Ally who is hunting for vesps with her reunited love interest, Rob.