A Marca do Medo

THE QUIET ONES is another disappointing effort put out by the new and revamped Hammer Films. It's a generic science-team-researches-ghost type effort, obviously modelled on old-fashioned epics like THE STONE TAPE, yet the material is so sub-standard and predictable that it becomes very difficult to sit through, let alone enjoy.

The entire blame for the failure can be laid on the script, which took at least four people to write; four diverse folk who between them wrote everything from URBAN Gothic and RAMPART to THE UNINVITED and QUARANTINE 2: TERMINAL . Everything else is adequate APART from the script: Sam Claflin is an acceptable lead actor, and Jared Harris is pleasingly old-fashioned in his approach to his role. I liked the idea of the 1970s setting and the film-within-a-film type material is always fun.

Unfortunately, the story boils down to all the old possession clichés, and even a few ridiculous CGI scenes here and there (thankfully they're kept extremely brief). Attempts to build mystery are negated by having an exceptionally dull explanation at the end, plus one of those stupid last-reel twists It's hardly a wonder that Hammer have gone very quiet recently, as none of their new films are remotely like their classics of old.