Silent Warnings |
  • USA • 2003 • 87m •   • Directed by: Christian McIntire. • Starring: Stephen Baldwin, A.J. Buckley, Billy Zane, Callie De Fabry, David O'Donnell, Michelle Borth, Ransford Doherty, Kim Onasch, Michael Ash. • Music by: Richard McHugh.      After the accidental death of his cousin Joe Vossimer, the just-graduated electronic engineer Layne Vossimer joins his girlfriend and four friends of them to visit and clean the inherited farm in the country. The local Sheriff Bill Willingham is an old friend of Layne, and also grieves the death of Joe. When the group arrives in the farm, some weird and mysterious signs appear in the cornfield, but they believe the other locals are joking with them. When Iris Doyle vanishes, the rest of the group realizes that there is a serious menace jeopardizing that place.
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Review:
Co-written & directed by Christian McIntire while I didn't think Silent Warnings was brilliant or even approaching it I thought it was an OK watch. The script by McIntire & Bill Lundy is all build up & scene setting for the first hour & then it changes direction completely & turns into an all out alien invasion film which is a shift in direction that felt like it came out of nowhere. The first hour tries to keep you in the dark a much as possible as nothing for definite is revealed but the presence of alien life-forms is obviously hinted at, it has a go at trying to explain the significance of the strange phenomena of crop circles which it does reasonably enough but when all said & done you just can't help but feel that Silent Warnings is a cheap Signs (2002) rip-off & considering the two were made & released so close together it's hard to put up a defence against it. There are just so many similarities for it to be a coincidence, however I suppose the good new is if you liked Signs & are after something very similar then Silent Warnings is definitely the film for you. It moves along at a reasonable pace although the first hour mainly relies on suggestion & careful build up, the character's are OK & not as annoying as many all teen cast films, the dialogue is alright & I actually found it quite watchable for what it was but then again why should you listen to me?
Director McIntire does OK, this looks like a proper film & not the usual low grade stuff that goes straight-to-video & because of the cast that makes me believe this was maybe intended for a theatrical release. There are one or two half decent 'jump' scare moments although in the end they're cheap scares, there's a certain mysterious feel to the film during the first hour & it has it's moments. Now the bad news, the alien CGI computer effects are absolutely terrible, no question they are awful & the aliens inspire fits of laughter rather than screams. Oh well, nothings perfect I suppose.
Techncially the films pretty good terrible CGI effects apart, it's well made throughout with decent enough production values. Apparently Silent Warnings was shot in Sofia in Bulgaria. The acting was alright & Billy Zane is still paying the price for appearing in The Phantom (1996) as all he can get is acting jobs in films like this shot in Bulgaria.
Silent Warnings isn't the best film ever but I found it a harmless enough way to pass 80 odd minutes, you could do a lot better for sure but you could do a lot worse as well.
Review by Paul Andrews from the Internet Movie Database.
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