The Silencing(2020)

R
Rated R for violence, some disturbing images, and language
1h 33m

Release Date: Aug 14, 2020 | Limited

A reformed hunter living in isolation on a wildlife sanctuary becomes involved in a deadly game of cat and mouse when he and the local Sheriff set out to track a vicious killer who may have kidnapped his daughter years ago.

Official Website

Releases

Original Release | Aug 14, 2020

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Box Office Results

Results

Opening Weekend US & Canada:
$53,205
Total US & Canada:
$100,746
Total International
$69,907
Total Worldwide:
$170,653

Current Showtimes

Your Location or

(U.S. Only)

Director & Top Cast

Robin Pront
Director

Josh Cruddas
Shorter Brother

Technical Specifications

Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1

Other Details

Country of Origin: Canada,United States

Language: English

Summaries

Plot Summary

The movie opens with an dead person in brightly colored clothing floating down white-water rapids.Elsewhere, we see a pair of hunters about to shoot a deer. Rayburn Swanson (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) stops them, and confiscates their weapons, and indicates that they're trespassing in a sanctuary. The hunters seem to know him, and their conversation indicates that Rayburn used to be a hunter himself. "People change," he says to them. "No they don't," one of them replies.Rayburn goes home to his dog, Thor. He owns surveillance equipment monitoring the sanctuary.We meet Sheriff Alice Gustafson (Annabelle Wallis). She picks her brother, Brooks (Hero Fiennes Tiffin) from Karl Blackhawk (Zahn McClarnon), Sheriff of the local tribal police, who found him at the Factory, implied to be a seedy location. Brooks looks to have been in an altercation, but refuses to tell Blackhawk what happened at the Factory.As Alice drives Brooks home, he confesses that he was involved in a fight with Sam Moonblood over "a woman". He says Sam and someone named Olson are involved in all sorts of bad things. Brooks expresses discomfort as they drive past a barn. Alice is called into a possible homicide investigation.Rayburn entertains a school field trip while slightly intoxicated. He explains that he manages a 50 square mile sanctuary. One of the kids mention how Rayburn used to be a prolific hunter. He says he has left that life behind because his daughter didn't like him doing it.Alice and the local cops investigate a young girl's body that's washed ashore. A forensic officer says the body was probably dumped in the water post-mortem, about a week prior. The body has a vertical scar on the throat area. The cops find an spearhead embedded in a nearby tree and think the girl may have been hunted for sport.We see Rayburn driving around town, putting up missing person posters for his 14-year old daughter, Gwen. Soon after, he runs into Blackhawk and his wife, Debbie (Melanie Scrofano). Their conversation reveals that Debbie is Rayburn's ex-wife. She invites Rayburn to a funeral that Blackhawk is organizing for Gwen. She wants Rayburn to sign a document formally presuming Gwen's death to get a death certificate issued.We see Alice examining the spearhead from earlier in her office. Shining a flashlight through it reveals an emblem "MB".Back home, a drunk Rayburn sees the news of the unidentified girl's body being found and drives over.Alice visits her brother, Brooks. They talk about their parents' death and we learn that Brooks was abused by his foster parents and kept tied up in a barn. Brooks asks his sister if she'd have his back if he was ever involved in something terrible. A moment later, Rayburn shows up looking for Alice and requests that she show him the Jane Doe body. They visit the morgue, where he confirms it's not Gwen.Later in the evening, Alice finds Rayburn at a bar. She wants to help find Gwen to prove herself to the town. Rayburn is not optimistic. He considers it a cold case, as Gwen went missing five years prior.The next morning, Rayburn sees a person in a heavily camouflaged ghillie suit take down one of his cameras in the sanctuary. He puts together his own hunting kit and drives over there. He gets spears shot at, taking one the shoulder, but escaping. His vehicle is stalled, so he is unable to drive away. Walking around, he finds another pickup truck, presumably belonging to the hunter. He discreetly keys a small "x" next to its fuel tank, before returning home on foot.Rewinding surveillance footage, he learns that the hunter has been tracking a human girl. He returns to the forest, makes contact with the hunter, but is ultimately unable to capture them.Alice shows the found spearhead to a local seller hunting gear. He explains to her that the spear was likely shot using an atlatl, a rare, and now illegal handheld spear-slinging weapon of ancient design. He refers her to Sam Moonblood, who hangs out at the Factory, and sells atlatls of his own construction.In the forest, Rayburn finds the hunted girl, passed out.Alice visits the Factory, seemingly a hangout spot for delinquents and unhoused people. She inquires about Sam Moonblood and is told that he's likely out hunting. A girl named Patty tells Alice a possible location she may find Moonblood.In the forest, Rayburn is carrying the unconscious girl. He comes across a small underground bunker. The girl comes to. She seems unable to speak, and indicates in writing that her name is Molly. They take shelter for the night.Alice shows up at Moonblood's suspected residence, which is unoccupied. There, she finds atlatls spearheads with the same "MB" initials. She runs into Blackhawk who followed her there. He shows her a picture of Molly, who is missing. He tells her that her mother hangs out at the Factory. According to him, she said she got into an altercation with Brooks. Alice refuses to believe that her brother could have anything to do with a kidnapping, while Blackhawk seems to consider it a possibility.The next morning, Alice visits Brooks's residence. He's not there, but she finds newspaper clippings about kidnappings.Rayburn and Molly continue on foot. As they take a break, he shows Molly a picture of Gwen, whom she doesn't recognize. They eventually reach Rayburn's residence, where Thor is heard whimpering. Rayburn is ambushed by the hunter, still obscured by the ghillie suit. Molly tries to fight the hunter, but gets stabbed by a spear.Just then, Alice arrives, meaning to ask Rayburn about the guns he confiscated from those hunters earlier. She holds the hunter at gunpoint, who surrenders. However, Alice recognizes him to be Brooks because of his knuckle cracking habit. She turns around and shoots Rayburn instead, letting her brother escape. Rayburn also escapes this situation. He calls an ambulance for Molly, traps Alice in a bear trap, and drives her SUV to Blackhawk and Debbie's residence. He tells them how Alice shot him to protect her brother.Alice calls for backup and calls for Rayburn's arrest.Blackhawk and Debbie take Rayburn to the Factory, and have their confidant Dr. Boone (Shaun Smyth) to treat him. Brooks happens to arrive at the Factory just then, looking for drugs. After a foot chase, Blackhawk arrests him. Alice is notified of this, who comes over. Blackhawk stands his ground, believing Rayburn's story, reminds her that she does not have jurisdiction over his county, and refuses to let her see Brooks.Shortly after, Brooks leads the cops (including Alice and Blackhawk) to the barn from earlier. There, they find Sam Moonblood (Gregory Odjig), bound and gagged. Blackhawk explains that Brooks has been keeping Moonblood here since their altercation, but also denies any knowledge of Molly. Blackhawk believes Brooks, as eyewitnesses place him at the Factory when Alice and Rayburn had their encounter, meaning the hunter's identity is still unknown. Blackhawk recommends Alice be placed on leave and investigated for shooting Rayburn. Alice calls off the search for Rayburn. At the Factory, Rayburn is told that the hunter wasn't Brooks.The following day, Blackhawk calls Alice over to question Moonblood. He mentions that Rayburn changed his story, saying "the suspect must have shot him." Moonblood says he doesn't track names of his customers whom he sells atlatls. He doesn't recognize the found spearhead, saying it's made from a different wood than what he uses.As Rayburn is cleaning out bottles of alcohol, presumably with the intention of quitting, we see a flashback to when his daughter disappeared from his car as he stopped to buy whiskey. To this day, he holds on to that old bottle of whiskey.Alice visits a gravely injured Molly in the hospital. She notices the same kind of scar on her throat as the Jane Doe body from earlier.Later, Rayburn comes across a pickup truck identical to the one he found in the forest (presumably belonging to the mystery hunter). He chases it down and looks for his "x" mark, but doesn't find one. Intent on tracking the hunter down, he hangs around some busy roads until he sees another one of these trucks. He follows this one until it stops at a house. He finds his mark next to the fuel tank, but learns that it's driven by an old man who lives by himself, unlikely to be the hunter. The man tells Rayburn that his neighbor sometimes uses the truck.Rayburn decides to pay this neighbor's house a visit. Breaking in, he finds a dark room with posters and newspaper clippings of people who have gone missing in the area. He also finds a room with an unconscious girl with her throat surgically cut open. Just then, he gets ambushed by Dr. Boone, who injects Rayburn with something to knock him out.Back at the hospital, Alice is taken to Dr. Boone's office to look for an autopsy report. There, she finds out Boone had a daughter named Melissa who was hit by a drunk driver in a forest and left to die. In a framed picture of them, Melissa appears to be wearing a pendant with exactly the same "MB" initials from the spearheads.With police backup, Alice breaks into Boone's residence and finds the unconscious girl. Neither Boone nor Rayburn are there. She notices Gwen Swanson's missing poster and wants to find Rayburn.Boone drives Rayburn, who is drifting back into consciousness into the forest. Boone gives Rayburn a head start as he puts on his hunting suit. Alice gets to Rayburn's place, finds Thor barking at the surveillance system, and sees Rayburn running on foot through the sanctuary in darkness while being tracked by the hunter. Armed, she runs into the sanctuary on foot to find them.Rayburn eventually sneaks up on Boone and overpowers him. He asks Boone "why Gwen?" Boone states that he was a good father but his daughter was taken from him, whereas Rayburn was a drunk and he figured that Gwen being his daughter would also grow up to be a "drain on everyone." He says he only "took the ones that no one would miss."Rayburn knocks Boone out and starts dragging him somewhere to kill him. At that moment, Alice comes upon them and holds Rayburn at gunpoint. He asks her to shoot him again or walk away. He drops Boone onto an old, defunct animal trap of his own, all but killing him. A fatally injured Boone asks if Rayburn will leave him to die like an animal, to which Rayburn replies that he wouldn't leave an animal suffering, as he covers up the trap, deserting Boone.Back in town, a funeral is held for Gwen that many, including Molly, attend.We see the barn where Brooks held Moonblood being demolished. We learn from Alice's police radio that Dr. Boone is suspected to be a serial killer and still considered missing.The movie closes on Rayburn presumably about to pour out the bottle of whiskey that he purchased the day Gwen was kidnapped.

Storyline

A reformed hunter now living secluded in a wildlife sanctuary after the disappearance of his teen daughter years ago saves a young girl from being killed by a serial killer but gets caught in a deadly cat-and-mouse game. His path crosses with the town's sheriff who also seeks to bring the serial killer to justice after the discovery of the body of a teenaged girl. — Fella_shibby@yahoo.com Former master hunter Rayburn has turned private ranger since his animal-loving teen daughter's disappearance five years ago, presumably victim of a local serial killer, having turned alcoholic and established a wildlife sanctuary, named Gwen Swanson after her, in a vast forest, where he guides people. The killer strikes again, but Rayburn's help saves mute Molly, having spotted a gillie-suited man roaming around, recorded attacking by his wildlife cameras. Sheriff Alice Gustafson suspects her mentally impaired brother Brooks, so attempts a cover up. Rayburn deals with her and the real killer, he comes after him, while his own trauma may finally gets solved. After Alice stepped into a bear trap, Rayburn seeks shelter with Molly, helped by Indian reserve tribal police chief Karl Blackhawk, at an abandoned mill. The real, traumatized killer is finally found. — KGF Vissers