Silent Retreat

Silent Retreat (2013) is a Canadian movie that I recently watched on Prime. The storyline follows a troubled young lady who is sent to a unique rehabilitation retreat where she isn't allowed to talk. It is rumored there's a dark past at the rehab center and a creature that eats people in the surrounding woods. When other young ladies turn up missing at the center, the students don't know if they've been released, eaten by the creature in the woods or worse... The new girl is itching to find out what's what and try to free the other girls.

This movie is directed by Tricia Lee (Blood Hunters) and stars Sofia Banzhaf (Splinters), Robert Nolan (Sixty Minutes to Midnight), Jen Pogue (The Masked Saint) and Katie Buitendyk (Total Frat Movie).

I found the first hour of this movie frustrating. The storyline was fairly straightforward with some unique elements. There is some good subplots and character development baked in. The acting, writing and dialogue were uneven and disappointing at times. Even the first few horror scenes, which were limited, were shot too dark and missed the mark. But an hour into the movie the horror elements kick up a notch and you get your first great kill with gore and solid flesh eating. The creature in the woods reveal is outstanding and I was left wondering where that was the entire movie. The conclusion is actually pretty good if you can be patient enough to get to it.

Overall, this has some well executed scenes at the end that make it worth a watch but missed an opportunity to be great. I would score this a 5/10 and recommend seeing it once.

Janey Andrews lost her family in a crash. She's alone in the world. A judge sends her to a meditation retreat for assault despite her plea of self-defense. The all-female retreat is in the middle of the woods run a doctor and his two sons. The women are forbidden to speak or even make eye contact. Janey tries to escape but she's captured by one of the sons although he seems to be afraid of something in the woods.

It's a watchable Canadian indie horror. It starts off with a creepy notion of these women being controlled by this weird doctor. It could have gone down many different paths. It tries to do something with sound. At least, it's unusual. It does need to decide whether the creature is attracted by sound or is hurt by it. It may make more sense for everybody to be quiet including the men. It may be even better if the doctor's introduction is done in a sound-proof room. The sound idea has issues that needs to be addressed. As for the creature itself, it is not the best although I'm sure the low budget restricted the movie. The main problem is the way the creature moves and the way it is filmed. It isn't scary. The blood looks too red especially in the dark. This horror has an intriguing premise and it needs more work to hash it out.

A troubled teen (Chelsea Jenish) is brought to a strange rehabilitation camp in the woods of the Northeast, which is run by a stern "doctor" and his two sons. The patients are all female and no one is permitted to talk. Meanwhile something malevolent lurks in the woods.

"Silent Retreat" (2013) was shot in Ontario and only cost $185,000 (USD), but is professionally made Indie drama/horror. The locations, actors, music, cinematography, editing and so forth are surprisingly effective for super low-budget fare. Sofia Banzhaf (Alexis) and Jen Pogue (Pink Stripe) stand out in the feminine department.

Unfortunately, there are a few glaring problems. For one, the creature angle wasn't needed and feels undeveloped, not to mention it needlessly turns an interesting story about conformity into gory monster mayhem. Think "The Stepford Wives," minus the robotics, mixed with a dash of "Gargoyles" and the typical Tarantino bloody climax. Then there's the eye-rolling sapphic bit at around the 35-minute mark, which is also just thrown in with zero development. No doubt the director/writer wanted to score points for political correctness and attract an award, which ironically smacks of conformity.

The third issue is the one-dimensional depiction of males and females. There's no balance regarding either gender in liberated Western Civilization. Literally ALL women are suppressed and oppressed while ALL men are controlling, abusing monsters. If this were remotely so, how exactly did Oprah and Ellen have their popular shows and become billionaires?

Then there's the one-dimensional depiction of the Bible's view of women. Don't get me wrong, there are men in real-life like the "doctor," but how about featuring a little more info for some honest balance? Otherwise, viewers will walk away with a skewed understanding of what the Scriptures actually teach on the topic. For instance, God chose Deborah to lead Israel for 40 years spiritually, legally, politically and militarily (Judges 2:16 & 4:4-9). Hebrew men sought instruction from prophetess Huldah (2 Kings 22:14-20). Miriam assumed the role of prophet during the exodus and led in worship (Exodus 15:20-21). Keep in mind that this was a patriarchal culture in the Near East.

Furthermore, the first evangelists in the New Testament were women sent by Christ who instructed men (Mark 16:1, Luke 24:10, Matthew 28:1-10 & Mark 16:7). Priscilla taught scholar Apollos "more accurately" (Acts 18:24-26). Your see, there is neither male nor female IN Christ (Galatians 3:28). Women with the prophetic gift were expected to prophesy to others and not keep silent, as well as pray in public (1 Corinthians 11:4-5). Philip the evangelist "had four unmarried daughters who prophesied" (Acts 21:9). I'm just supplying additional information for those who might walk away from this film with a twisted understanding of the topic.

I realize this is a low-budget Indie, but how about some balance simply for the sake of honesty and realism?

The movie runs 1 hour, 24 minutes, and was shot in Kettleby, Ontario (I'm assuming Kettleby Valley Camp), which is a dozen miles north of Toronto.

GRADE: C-/D+

Janey (Chelsea Jenish) is a trouble child. And for her efforts, or lack thereof, is sent off to a remote retreat for nonconformist girls under the guidance of a doctor (Robert Nolan) whose methods are ….a bit radical. The Doctor, and his staff of male accomplices, uses hypnosis and other extreme techniques to get their subjects to comply with their rules that command their patients to be completely obedient through deafening silence. Failure to obey the directions beyond their imposed 'two-strike rule' will result in the subject being fed to a lurking creature that inhabits the surrounding woods.

Janey is hardly the conformist. And her rebellious attitude towards the retreat's rules and regulators eventually lead to unavoidable confrontation. But with other girls simply disappearing, Janey must weigh her defiance against the risks of being overpowered by either the male administrators or the evil yet to be revealed from the outside.

Director Tricia Lee makes her feature film debut with Silent Retreat and shows a high degree of talent in transitioning genres. The film's opening scene is unquestionably horror, but the film switches gears and takes more of a dramatic path for the middle act focusing on Janey's relationship with fellow prisoner Alexis (Sofia Banzhaf) and the regimented retreat rules. We got lost ourselves for a while forgetting for a few moments that there was something mysteriously lurking within the forest. A mysterious something that reveals itself in the film's final chapters reminding us that Silent Retreat is horror plain and simple.

Characters as portrayed by Chelsea Jenish, Sofia Banzhaf and Robert Nolan are perfectly cast as they lend their combined talents to a tale that all three seem committed to pulling together. Lee does not seem to be in rush to allow blood splatter consistently through the film's full 95-minute running time and instead uses her DVD chapters wisely to form a setting and atmosphere that the film will heavily rely upon.

Silent Retreat won Best Canadian Film at the 2013 Toronto After Dark Film Festival, but you can remove the "Canadian" from the award plaque and you would still be left with a viable and enjoyable film worthy of our attention.

www.killerreviews.com

Why the extreme low scores and angry reviews? This movie reminds me of silly late night horror films from the 80s, like you'd see with Elvira. It's almost as if they took 3 or more films and mashed them together. It's odd. It's not perfect.

The simple setting is nice and fits the tone of this idea of a nice quiet place to send delinquent kids.

Then it changes... There's a monster movie, a camp "last girl" gory movie, and a rapey psychological horror movie all suddenly collide into a weird mix. And absurd hypnosis.

The whole thing could have been blah, but the acting of the 2 main girls and some actually well done gory scenes made it enjoyable.

I'm scoring this a bit higher because I just read reviews that gave it a 1 out of 10 (which is way too harsh), then said things they liked. That makes no sense. At least give it a 4 or 5 for those good bits you liked. This movie isn't that bad, so these low scores just seem angry. Some reviews contradict themselves by saying they loved so-and-so in their role, yet scored a 1 or 2. (Perhaps I'm missing some behind-the-scenes drama? Which probably would not matter imo.) I try to focus on the positives, especially online. Spread kindness!

These filmmakers did pretty well with a low budget and lot of hard work. There's a lot of creativity here, maybe unfocused. And the talent shows. Good luck to their future endeavors!