Hollywood’s Fascination with Silence and Horror

With the release of A Quiet Place in 2018 and The Silence in 2019, there is an unmistakable fascination in the connection between horror films and sound. In this connection, there is a visible pattern that these types of stories consists of that includes: 1) A family unit that is trying to survive, 2) A post-apocalyptic setting either taking place right before, during, or sometime after a cataclysmic event, 3) An entity with acute hearing hunting the family, 4) The family has to make as little noise as possible.

The rise of films that follow this specific model is both intriguing and exciting. Not only does it call back to the classic silent horror films of the 1920’s, but it exemplifies the works of Dr. Mark Griffiths, Dr. Glenn Walters, and Dr. Deirdre Johnston in finding the connection between audiences’ fascination with fear and film. The following article will be a detailed analysis simultaneously analyzing The Silence and A Quiet Place in conjunction with why Hollywood has this growing fascination with horror stories and sound. For audiences who may not have seen either movie, this article will contain spoilers.

The Silence

Based on the 2015 novel by Tim Lebbon , The Silence is a Netflix original film directed by John R. Leonetti, starring Kiernan Shipka, Stanley Tucci, and Miranda Otto. It follows the Andrews family as they struggle to survive the infestation of a “deadly, primeval species who have bred for decades in the pitch darkness of a vast underground cave system…” This primitive species is blind and they hunt using impeccable hearing, thus, as the Andrews seek refuge they are forced to remain as quiet as possible. This is further complicated by the fact that their teenage daughter, Ally, is deaf.

This is an intense story filled with difficult choices that highlight the harsh realities of living in an apocalyptic, distopian world. As the Andrews travel from the city into the countryside, where they hope that seclusion and silence will ensure their survival, they are forced to make morally conflicting choices. For example, when they encounter a religious sect that tries to kidnap Ally, the family bands together, protecting each other, and they suffer great losses as a result. The Silence creates a lawless world that must be navigated carefully by characters who struggle with unique challenges.

A Quiet Place

In the movie A Quiet Place (directed by John Krasinski, starring Emily Blunt, John Krasinski, and Millicent Simmonds) audiences are treated to a horror story that features little to no sound. The dialogue is sparse, and the story is told primarily through action and visual stimuli.

A Quiet Place follows the Abbott family through the end of times as they work together to survive an alien invasion in complete silence. They have turned their homestead farm into a survival base, outfitting it with special lights to communicate and sand to muffle their footsteps. Their lives are lived in almost complete silence, and they communicate primarily using American Sign Language.

Featuring only 25 lines of actual dialogue , this is a unique story because Regan Abbott (played by Millicent Simmonds) is deaf. This provides a special layer to the story, as the cast hardly have any spoken lines. Rotten Tomatoes gave it a 95% rating on the Tomatometer, with an 83% audience approval, and said:

A Quiet Place artfully plays on elemental fears with a ruthlessly intelligent creature feature that’s as original as it is scary — and establishes director John Krasinski as a rising talent.

Representation for the Deaf Community

There is a clear fascination in Hollywood with these types of stories. The formula for this sub-genre of horror has become: a family’s main goal is to survive, the monster or entity hunts by hearing alone, and the characters’ survival is linked with their ability to keep quiet. The challenge is for Hollywood to tell a story by making as little noise as possible and featuring little to no dialogue. Thus, the storytelling has to be translated visually through unique scenes, dynamic settings, and engaging action to keep audiences entertained.

One thing that has become a common element both A Quiet Place and The Silence share is representation of the Deaf community and the use of American Sign Language. Although it is arguable which film has better representation, both movies feature a deaf, teenage girl and a family that is fluent in ASL. This not only allows communication between characters, but provides a representation for the community that audiences don’t typically see in film, and that Hollywood is greatly lacking. Perhaps these elements have become indicative to this type of story; a monster with impeccable hearing, and people who cannot hear. Perhaps deafness has become a unique fingerprint of the sub-genre.

Pamela Kincheloe, guest writer for HuffPost, said in her article concerning the representation in A Quiet Place:

Many people in the deaf community (myself included) are cheering the film on, because it provides the hearing mainstream with even more exposure to what psychologist Harlan Lane calls the “Deaf-World” and because it signals yet another media victory for the deaf community as it continues to try to re-center deaf identity with the idea of “Deaf Gain.”

She continues to define “Deaf Gain” as ways “in which both deaf people and society at large have benefited from the existence of deaf people and sign language throughout recorded human history.” The fact that ASL gives a strong advantage to the Abbotts’ survival can be considered a “Deaf Gain”.

However, these movies are not without their tropes. Kincheloe concludes her article by saying: “… silence, especially the inability to speak, is depicted as tragic. Without sound, the characters apparently can’t fully express their love for one another (the parents have to resort to sharing an iPod and dancing), nor can they fully express pain (loss, stepping on nails, childbirth).” This creates a disconnect for the hearing and Deaf audiences alike; to see characters that desire to express themselves with sound, but doing so has negative consequences, can send a conflicting message that may not be beneficial for representation.

The same can be said for The Silence, as critics were less than thrilled with Leonetti’s portrayal of ASL, taking to social media to point out the blatant grammatical flaws , and angered by the fact that Leonetti didn’t cast a Deaf actress for Ally’s character. These two aspects had a great negative impact on the film’s worthiness within the Deaf community.

Hollywood’s History with Horror and Sound

Regardless, horror films have been fascinated with sound and the lack there of for decades. The evolution of the film industry has had an amazing journey, from the time when Eadweard Muybridge filmed a galloping horse in the 187o’s to the development of both the Virtual and Augmented Reality technology of 2019.

But the Silent Film era dates back to the beginning of film history, when from 1910-1927 motion pictures had no sound because technology had yet been developed to capture audio. Instead, films were either accompanied by a live orchestra or pianist, or canned scores were overlaid and played on a loop. The 20’s also gave birth to the beginning of silent horror with legendary films such as Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1920) and Nosferatu (1922), laying the foundations for what would develop into the genre today. These films utilized elements such as theme, atmosphere, shadows, and unique camera tricks to convey terrifying stories without the use of sound or dialogue.

The same techniques can be seen in both A Quiet Place and The Silence. In A Quiet Place the use of lighting is important, particularly in the basement flooding scene. Krasinski builds tension and atmosphere by balancing the red light and reflections on the dark water, creating a yin and yang usage of lights and shadows to convey both danger and fear. In The Silence, Leonetti utilizes unique camera angles as the Andrews family crawls through a drainage pipe. The limited camera angle helps build the audiences’ fear by cutting out key information about the characters’ safety. Both of these scenes prove that filmmakers can build tension and suspense in their horror films without the use of sound.

The Silent Film era was unique because both Deaf and hearing audiences could equally appreciate the films, and Deaf actors were more frequently cast in silent films. When early Talkies came on scene in the late 20’s early 30’s, it was the end of an era of accessibility. Closed captioning did not come into play until the late 40’s when Deaf actor Emerson Romero (otherwise known as Tommy Albert) developed a rudimentary method of putting captions between picture frames in films. So this inaccessibility greatly hindered Deaf audiences’ enjoyment of film. Now, movies such as A Quiet Place and The Silence echo back to that Silent Era of accessibility with little to no dialogue, closed captioning, and use of ASL. This level of representation is what Hollywood should continue to seek to produce.

Why Audiences Enjoy Horror

The fascination with these types of stories could be linked with the psychological concept of fear. Typically with silence comes peace. There is a satisfaction in finding a moment without the over-stimuli of modern life. This ideal is off put by the drama and terror of knowing that with sound comes great danger and most likely death. So for this kind of movie, there is no peace in these quiet moments.

Dr. Mark Griffiths, psychologist and Director of the International Gaming Research Unit in the Psychology Division at Nottingham Trent University, wrote for Psychology Today, saying:

According to a 2004 paper in the Journal of Media Psychology by Dr. Glenn Walters, the three primary factors that make horror films alluring are tension (generated by suspense, mystery, terror, shock, and gore), relevance (that may relate to personal relevance, cultural meaningfulness, the fear of death, etc.), and (somewhat paradoxically given the second factor) unrealism.

With this knowledge at hand, it is easy to then extrapolate that tension, relevance, and unrealism in this new horror film formula. Audiences find tension in that the characters’ survival hinges on total and absolute silence. Relevance can be found in the fear of being heard and the meaningfulness of the Deaf community representation. Finally, the unrealism is found in the advanced, evolutionary type of hunters that have tipped the balance of the food chain.

Griffiths continues to report that (according to Dr. Deirdre Johnston) “there are four main different reasons for why we… like watching horror movies (gore watching, thrill watching, independent watching and problem watching).” He continues to define these four reasons, and points out that specific “dispotitional [sic] characters” are also determining factors, such as: “fearfulness, empathy, and sensation seeking.”

Griffiths further elaborates on Johnston’s theory, saying that gore watchers tend to be “high sensation seeking”, thrill watchers “like the suspense of the film”, independent watchers “have a high positive effect for overcoming fear”, and problem watchers “have high empathy for the victims”.

Finally, Griffiths references Dr. Dolf Zillman’s Excitation Transfer theory (ETT) and claims it is an “extension of catharsis theory”, stating: “Negative feelings created by horror movies actually intensify the positive feelings when the hero triumphs in the end. But what about movies where the hero doesn’t triumph?” He concludes by saying that small studies have proven that people’s enjoyment tend to be higher during the scary parts of horror films than they are after the fact.

The Theories of Enjoyment

These are several viable theories as to why audiences enjoy horror films; The Three Primary Factors (tension, relevance, and unrealism), The Four Watching Reasons (gore, thrill, independent, and problem), and the Excitation Transfer Theory (ETT). All of these theories can combine to provide proof as to why this formula for the new horror films works. In knowing this, these theories can be applied to both The Silence and A Quiet Place as followed:

Both films feature The Three Primary Factors of tension, relevance, and unrealism. However, The Silence leans heavily towards unrealism, while A Quiet Place demonstrates more tension. A good example of this tension is when Lee Abbott signs to Regan: “I love you. I’ve always loved you.” Until this moment Regan believed her father didn’t love her because he indirectly blamed her for her little brother’s death. Lee’s words were significant at this moment in the film’s climax because not only did it strengthen the bond between father and daughter, it increased the tension as his death was impending.

Although both films meet The Four Watching Reasons (gore, thrill, independent, and problem), it is arguable that some apply more so than others. A Quiet Place arguably has more suspense for the thrill watchers than gore, although the birth scene is a bit bloody. Nevertheless, The Silence does have gore, suspense, and a sense of helplessness for problem watchers. A good example of this suspense is when, upon realizing the true extent of the vesp threat, Ally signs to her family: “I know how to live in silence, we all do.”

When it comes to the Excitation Transfer Theory (ETT), can it be said that there is a discernible hero triumphing in the end of both films? In A Quiet Place there is the specific moment of inspiring hope when Regan learns what effects the electronic feedback from her cochlear implant has on the aliens. During the final scene she and her family are huddled in the basement when she realizes the alien’s weakness; this instantly makes up for the terror from previous scenes. The same can be said for Ally in The Silence. There is a certain satisfaction in knowing that, despite the threat of the vesps, she and her family reached the safe haven where they were able to adapt to their new, savage surroundings. While both the Abbott family and the Andrews family can be considered the heroes of their own tales, and the monsters their villains, the negative feelings evoked by both movies does satisfy the ETT in their struggle for survival. This proves that the new sub-genre of horror, this hearing verses not hearing, and the films without sound, do meet all the standards for the theories of enjoyment.

The thrill of horror, of not being able to make a sound, of the struggle to survive, has become a notable pattern in Hollywood as of late. In both films, The Silence (2019) and A Quiet Place (2018) exemplify this formula for a unique terror that honors the 1920’s silent horror films that influenced the genre, while simultaneously providing representation for the Deaf community. It is undeniable at this point that Hollywood has an ever growing fascination with dystopian worlds and monsters that hunt the human race primarily via hearing. Films that follow this formula also comply with the theories of enjoyment, including The Three Primary Factors, The Four Watching Reasons, and ETT. All of this combines to make films such as The Silence and A Quiet Place so appealing to Hollywood, and audiences who enjoy a good scare. Will these types of movies continue to rise in popularity? Only time will tell, but the short-term answer is: certainly.

What do you think? .