The Sound

It's amazing how far Hollywood has fallen in the last 60 years...The subsequent rise of streaming services has further fragmented the audience and changed how content is consumed, impacting theatrical releases and potentially influencing the types of stories being told.

Some argue that streaming has led to a focus on readily consumable content, potentially at the expense of more challenging or auteur-driven films. The one thing this movie has that's not very common these days is an original concept, unfortunately it doesn't translate into a watchable movie. At least it's not the Three Little Pigs Part 42. Lets go UPenn.

Without ever having heard about this 2025 thriller from writer and director Brendan Devane, as I stumbled upon it by random chance, of course I opted to watch it. I do believe in giving all movies a fair chance, and thus also with "The Sound".

The storyline in the movie was a swing and a miss in terms of entertaining me. I struggled so hard to keep feigning an interest in the pointlessness that took place on the screen, yet I managed to endure the entire movie, hoping that the movie would get better. That just never happened. Right, well when Brad bit over the tether, yeah bit, I was good and ready to call it quits. That was just a nail in the coffin that was hard to ignore. Talk about laughable writing from writer Brendan Devane.

Personally I cannot fathom why people opt to scale mountains and put themselves at potential risk. But to each their own. And my disdain for mountain climbing possibly also transcended into not being overly thrilled or entertained by the scenes of the cast perched on the side of the mountain as they scaled it, or tumbled down it.

The only familiar face on the cast list for me was actor William Fichtner, and he was not in the movie for a particularly long period of time. The acting performances in "The Sound" were good, despite of the horrible script they had to work with.

My rating of writer and director Brendan Devane's 2025 movie "The Sound" lands on a very generous two out of ten stars.

I really wanted to like The Sound. The premise had so much potential-a story built on atmosphere, emotion, and the power of silence and sound. There were definitely moments where I felt immersed, especially in the first act. The cinematography was hauntingly beautiful at times, and the score (ironically) was one of the stronger elements.

But unfortunately, that's where the praise ends for me.

The pacing dragged in places where tension should've been tight. Characters felt underdeveloped, and emotional beats didn't land the way they should have. I found myself waiting for something to happen-some deeper revelation or payoff-but it never quite arrived. It was style over substance, and the script just didn't give the cast much to work with. Speaking of which, while some performances were decent, others felt wooden or overly theatrical.

By the time the credits rolled, I felt more disappointed than moved. The Sound had all the right ingredients, but the final product just didn't resonate the way it should have.

I was curious to see this having heard about several cameos from legit climbers - who all are done within the first five minutes. What can I say, the climbing content is for the most part fairly realistic even if they suggest it's a deadly climb and then give a grade range that any half decent climber could climb. They speaking the danger of the approach then pull up in vans and you can see the cliff face behind them... The whole plot is a garbled mess that feels written by someone who's never seen a horror movie. Everyone takes every outrageous plot reveal with no questions. The acting is for the most part woeful. The ending, dear god, the ending, possibly written by someone who hadn't read the rest of the script. A shame as whoever is behind this clearly has a love for climbing but this is not a love letter to climbing, more hate mail. Tonnes of quality climbing content on YouTube that doesn't have a god awful plot attached for no reason. Shame, really wanted this to be a cracker of a film to show my non climbing friends...

I know lower budget films like this take a lot of guff, but I enjoyed this one. Full disclosure, I'm a climber and I really appreciated how the climbing was done so maybe my score is a little higher because of that. We don't really get good climbing in films so this was a pleasant surprise. The movie itself is no masterpiece, but I enjoyed it. For $7 there is a lot worse out there. I liked the score and the music and the sound mix was excellent. Good cinematography as well, especially the wide climbing shots. I'm a big fan of The Thing, and while this falls short ( by more than a little), I get the idea. I feel like with a bigger budget this could have been really awesome, but I still think it's a decent watch. At least it's a somewhat original idea and professionally shot. In short, climbing great, movie- ok.