Review and critique at least one short film production

Dawn of the Deaf (2016)

 

Dir.: Rob Savage

 

Genre: Horror

 

Country: United Kingdom

 

Cast: Caroline Ward, Stephen Collins, Haley Bishop, Radina Drandova

 

Plot: A virus breaks out that leaves deaf people stranded in a world where everyone else has been turned into zombies by a worldwide sonic noise, known as the Pulse.

 

Review:

 

This gritty sci-fi horror centres around six different stories, including but not limited to: a deaf girl being assaulted by her stepfather; a deaf girl whose girlfriend is struggling to communicate with her, and a man talking at a conference. This works really well because despite the stories having a connection to each other, it’s very interesting to see the different perspectives, because even though these people are all deaf, they’re human beings and thus they all have very different lives and are very different people. The editing is generally simplistic but effective, using three scenes to create three-act structures from each story. Each of the six stories are introduced with one scene, and sometimes continued in another (such as the girl with the stepfather) and then comes the scene of the Pulse happening.

 

Due to the film centred around the deaf community, a lot of the film relies on sound, and most of it involves silence and music. A lot of the time when we hear ambient noise, it’s for a reason, and the same goes for when we don’t hear it. A great example of a scene where sound stands out is when the stepfather starts to sit on the bed with the girl, and he starts to touch her whilst talking (or signing) about music. This scene is played in silence except scuffle sounds when the characters move, to portray how uncomfortable the girl feels in this scene, which we end up feeling too. Once the stepfather moves in to kiss her, music starts to signal the end of the scene, which transitions into the next. This tells us that the assault is going to happen, and turns the tension into dread.

 

One of the stand out moments in the film was the underpass shot, where the lesbian couple argue with each other. This is a one take shot with the camera circling around the couple as they argue in sign language. What’s interesting is that the subtitles appear and disappear when each character is in front of the frame. This gives the scene a more frantic feel and puts us on edge, a similar feeling to the characters arguing. Some lines of dialogue pop up in a flash and are gone before the whole line is exposed. It ultimately doesn’t matter, as the conclusion of their conversation is them kissing and expressing their love for each other. While this is happening, the camera pans out to dead bodies lying in the underpass, revealing that the Pulse has happened. This is effective, as since the scene is from the deaf characters’ perspectives, we don’t hear the Pulse, and this makes the sight of a blood-stained subway a lot more horrifying and shocking.

 

As a horror fan, this was enthralling, intense and scary, and featured some excellent gory shocks. What was even omre shocking, however, was how engaging the characters were, who were surprisingly memorable and complex. Interestingly, the most uncomfortable scene in the film was between the girl and the stepfather, since it played on a real life fear that had a lot more chance of happening; not to say that the Pulse scenes were not realistic, but through concept alone they didn’t feel as real as that scene. The decision to centre the film about the deaf community was truly inspired and prevented this from being the familiar ‘virus outbreak’ film one might expect. This is most definitely recommended to any fan of horror cinema, or cinema in general (as long as they aren’t squeamish), and a feature-length version would be great to see.