TL;DR – While there is a kernel of a really good idea here, all the moving parts never quite connect
Score – 2.5 out of 5 stars
Post-Credit Scene – There is no post-credit scene

Review –
When reviewing films, I really like when I come across a scenario that
intrigues me. Well today we have just such a scenario where people’s lives
become unravelled through no fault of their own, okay maybe a little fault of
their own. However, while an interesting idea is a good start, it is not the
end of the equation and unfortunately that is the case here.
So to set the scene, three friends Eagle (Sean Nateghi), Bobby (Joseph Martinez),
and Dominic (Jay Habre), are out one weekend camping in the hills. They are
catching up and talking about their past and future as Eagle is just out of
jail after being set up in a break and enter. The weekend was great but when
they get back to their car they discover that while they were gone someone had
dumped a body in the back of their car. Immediately the question of what to do
splits the group and things spiral out from there.

From
the start, this is such an interesting scenario because your first instinct to
go to the police is immediately put into question for very legitimate reasons. You
have this conflict where for Eagle going to the police would be a really bad
decision with his past, but it would be very good for the other two. So do you
help out your friend, or do you take the selfish option and just look after
yourself, and when there is a body involved, is that really selfish? This is a
really good starting point for a film, because you can instantly digest the
conflict and how it is going to spiral out of control and that is just what
happens.
However, while this is a good start it soon hits some issues that really pull
this film back from its potential. Some of these issues are just limitations of
the budget which you can hear with the musical soundtrack, but there are a bit
more than that. One of the really big issues is the internal consistency that
people would not act like this in a real situation. A good example of this is
when Eagle who currently has a dead woman in the boot of his truck announcing
to a room full of random poker players that there is nothing the other guys can
say that they can’t say to the whole room … really. Or leaving people voice
mails about dead bodies, when they have made it clear that they understand that
police could be using things as evidence.

To add to this, one area where the film really does not work is in the banter between the different characters. It just felt forced all the time, I don’t know if this was because of the actors, or the script, or a combination of the both. Nearly every conversation felt stilted like that they just didn’t have enough time to really inhabit the characters. There were a couple of times when they were acting with a young child where it felt natural because it felt like these moments were not really scripted and that they were just going for it.
In the end, do we recommend Silent Panic? Unfortunately, I don’t think I can. There is a really good premise here, but it never feels like the film quite captures it or at least its potential.
By Brian MacNamara: You can follow Brian on Twitter Here, when he’s not chatting about Movies and TV, he’ll be talking about International Relations, or the Solar System.
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Credits – All images were created
by the cast, crew, and production companies of Silent Panic
Directed by – Kyle Schadt
Written by – Kyle Schadt
Music by – Field Observations
Cinematography by – Jordan Rennert
Edited by – Kyle Schadt
Production/Distribution Companies – Indie Rights
Starring – Sean Nateghi, Joseph Martinez, Jay Habre, Constance
Brenneman, Juliet Frew, Helene Udy, Diesel Miranda, Jeff Dowd, Cadence Holland,
Al Burke, Gregory Niebel & Cade Daniel
Rating – Around an Australia:
MA15