The Sound is a new horror thriller from Blue Harbor Entertainment by writer and director Brendan Devane (The Canyonlands). The film stars Marc Hills, Jolene Kay (Bosch: Legacy), Wayne Charles Baker (The Swarm), Nicholas Baroudi, and Gabe Greenspan, with small cameos from William Fitchner (Armageddon), Kyle Gass (Tenacious D), and David Clennon (The Thing).
The movie follows Sean, who, decades after his grandfather was killed trying to climb an off-limits mountain, is invited by the local Native American tribe to scale the peak with a group of other professional mountain climbers. What Sean and the others don’t know is that within the mountain lies an ancient evil hellbent on driving those who climb it insane.
At its core, the premise of The Sound is strong. It takes a look into the horrors of some Native American folklore, which simply isn’t explored enough in the genre. While the backstory and legends are kept a little too vague, it pairs nicely with the performance of Chief Guyustees (Wayne Charles Baker) and the beautiful, natural environments of Washington and Nevada.
The gorgeous environmental shots and cinematography by Brett Lowell, who has a ton of real-life rock-climbing film experience, were the shining factors behind the film. The camera work made climbing and falling scenes intense and kept me interested.
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Unfortunately, a lot of the best technical aspects of the film were held back by inexperienced actors and grating, stock-sounding rock music (though some nice score work from James Iha of The Smashing Pumpkins). Even the bit roles from veterans like William Fitchner, Kyle Gass, and David Clennon were too short (only a couple of minutes on screen combined,) and not enough to carry the acting load, even if there was a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it reference to John Carpenter’s The Thing.
It felt like every time The Sound started to get creepy or develop the story in relation to its characters more, it either switched away from the action or was interrupted by silly moments that made no sense.
For example, one of the climbers becomes possessed by evil, and somehow instantly bites through a rope designed to carry the weight of multiple people, or a mountaintop wrestling match between possessed climbers and ancient indigenous ghosts? Things got a little weird and goofy.
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Overall, The Sound was a decent movie, especially for a sophomore film from Brendan Devane, but a lot of surface issues with the acting, music, and scene transitions kept a strong premise and wonderful camera work from creating something great. I recommend giving this one a peep if you’re into folklore (particularly Native American) and nature horror flicks, but it’s probably not a film I’ll think about much after seeing it or watch a second time.
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