Sound Of Violence

Undoubtedly, Sound of Violence was one of the shocking films of the SXSW festival and imposes its director Alex Noyer with its very promising debut. Far from being a simple horrific thriller in the vein of the Saw cinematic saga, Sound of violence is first and foremost a truly intense cinematic and musical experience that will leave no one unaffected and will stay in your head long after you've seen it. There is something really fascinating not only by its bewitching story but especially by the way it tells this story (some psychedelic scenes are just unforgettable) but above all there is a real work on the sound aspect of the film which totally differentiates it from the other horror thrillers of the moment.

Alexis Reeves (Jasmin Savoy Brown) recovered her hearing during the brutal murder of her family when she was ten years old. This visceral experience awakened synesthetic abilities in her and set her on an orphaned path of self-discovery through music to heal from brutal violence. She continues her career teaching and experimenting to find new sounds. She is supported and loved by her roommate Marie Sotker (Lili Simmons), who is unaware of the dark secrets behind Alexis' unique music and the role she unknowingly plays. Faced with the likelihood of losing her hearing again, Alexis intensifies her quest for her masterpiece through macabre sound experiments and devastating designs. She will let nothing stop her, not even love.

Director Alex Noyer's inspired direction avoids making Sound of Violence a simple horror film. Far from wanting to make this one a succession of intense torture scenes, the script shows that Alexis Reeves' character, by witnessing the death of her parents, has never fully recovered from it and is forced to resort to murders to satisfy not only her search for perfect music but also to get her adrenaline dose necessary for her musical expression. Even though her art does not seem to hold the attention of the other students during a scene in which she offers them to listen to her creation, she seems to be in constant search of the perfect score even if it means killing many people. The film is all the more successful as the numerous make-up and special effects are perfectly mastered and should therefore please all those who are as much fond of original horror films as of music.

It is interesting to see that Sound of Violence perfectly masters the mechanics of a good horror thriller to the point of proposing an open and very effective ending in which we find all the soul of the great horror thrillers of the 80's and 90's with unstoppable psychopaths whose Freddy Krueger, Jason Voorhes and other Michael Myers have become iconic monsters of the cinema. One suspects that if this film is a success, a sequel will surely be considered.

Relying on two excellent actresses, Jasmin Savoy Brown (Evangeline Murphy in The Leftovers series) and Lili Simmons (Ray Donovan (2017), Purge (2018), Gotham (2019) series) Sound Of Violence easily stands out as one of this year's horrific events and should be a real success when it will be released on VOD in the United States on May 21st.

Sound Of Violence
Written and directed by Alex Noyer
Based on Conductor by Alex Noyer
Produced by Hannu Aukia, Alex Noyer
Production Designer: Gillian Chance
Executive Producer: Mike Macari
Starring Jasmin Savoy Brown, Lili Simmons, James Jagger, Tessa Munro
Music by Jaakko Manninen, Alexander Burke, Omar El-Deeb
Sound: Jussi Tegelman
Cinematography: Daphne Qin Wu
Special Effects: Robert Bravo
Edited by Hannu Aukia, Vertti Verkajärvi
Production companies: You Know Films, No-Office
Distributed by Gravitas Ventures (USA)
Running time : 94 minutes

Seen on March 20, 2021 (SXSW)