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