THE SILENCING

Canada/US, 2020, 93 minutes, Colour.

Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Annabelle Wallis, Zahn McClarnon Hero Fiennes Tiffin, Charlotte Lindsay Marron.

Directed by Robin Pront.

This is a very tough action thriller, a revenge thriller, set in the American woods.

At the centre is an alcoholic former hunter, grieving at the disappearance of his daughter, a devotee of preserving the wilderness, and his setting up a sanctuary in her honour, ousting hunters. He is played by Danish actor, Game of Thrones in many films, Nikolaj Coster-Waldeau.

Also at the centre of the film is the local sheriff, played by Annabelle Wallis, who becomes concerned when other girls disappear, and has an encounter with her younger brother and helps him to escape when he seems to be the perpetrator of the kidnappings.

There are complications in the confrontation between the hunter and the sheriff, his eventually having to save her from a trap in which she was caught and he had set. She has a change of heart, his concern about a young woman that the hunter had rescued from being pursued through the woods, finding her unable to speak because of injuries to her throat. The local doctor is asked to come in to help.

There are various suspicions, the hunter being held, the issue of the sheriff and her younger brother, and eventual suspicion on the doctor who has his own story about his missing daughter – and his strange obsession in rescuing young girls from bad parents to protect them, but also injuring their throats so that they could not speak.

For those who like revenge action thrillers, forest settings.

1. The title? Revenge film? The victims? The cruelty and the being silenced, pursued, killed?
2. The Canadian settings, the small town, homes, police precincts, shacks out in the forest? The forest locations and atmosphere? The musical score?
3. The credits sequence, vast, scenery, the river, the body in the river?
4. The introduction to Rayburn, hunter, the rifle, the two brothers, apprehending them, taking the rifles? His hut, breaking down, no phone? Yet the surveillance cameras, the screens in his house? A loner, drinking? The encounters with his ex-wife, her husband, Blackhawk, her pregnancy? The memories of their abducted daughter, aged 14? Rayburn and his putting up the posters? Rayburn and his shift to the environment, the children and the lessons and his explanations?
5. Alice, short time as sheriff, the interactions with Blackhawk, members of the police force, lack of confidence in her? Her relationship with Brooks, his troubles, protecting him? The dead girl in the forest, the wound on her throat? The interactions with Rayburn, his dismissal of her?
6. The mysterious character in the forest, disguised like a bear, blending into the background? Rayburn seeing him on the cameras? Going out, the pursuit, the vicious arrows? Rayburn finding Molly, the wound on her throat, shelter, carrying her, her surviving, hospital? Alice and her investigations?
7. The problems with Brooks, finding him disguised like the Hunter, Rayburn taking him, Alice coming into the house, the rifles, confrontations, Molly with the rifle, Brooks wounding her? Alice shooting Rayburn? His wife coming, bringing the doctor (whose daughter was also abducted), the operation, Alice’s intervention?
8. The confrontations, Alice and the arrows, asking the local Native Americans for information, the specific nature of the arrows, the sling? Suspicions, Rayburn and his search, finding the house, confronting the man, the killer, his explanations, silencing them, the girls and their having harsh and drinking father is?
9. Alice arriving at the house, the confrontation with the killer, Rayburn taking him to the forest, the animal traps, pushing him into the trap, the spikes, shooting him?
10. Vengeance achieved? The bottle of alcohol, the flashbacks to his buying it, memories of his daughter, her absence, throwing away the bottle? The future?