A serial killer hunts teen girls in the deep Minnesota forests. Sound familiar? It strikes Nikolaj Coster-Waldau (Jamie Lannister) Game of Thrones) to bring down the culprits. To be honest, the Danish actor goes the extra mile They were silent (on VOD with effect from 14 August), which is more than you can say for the footsteps of director Robin Pront and screenwriter Micah Ranum. Coster-Waldau’s character, an alcoholic hunter named Rayburn Swanson, has been trying to track down the location of his daughter, Gwen, who disappeared five years ago when she was just 14 years old. Rayburn had left her in his truck while he ate up his bosom. Guilt eats at him, though it is clear that he had been drinking heavily before her disappearance.
But why? That kind of character detail goes frustratingly unexamined. Even though a shameful Rayburn stops trampling game to carry out a nature conservation (Gwen hates his animal abuse), his love for alcohol remains unrestricted. Maybe it’s because his ex-wife is now pregnant by another man and wants Rayburn to sign a death certificate for her children so they can reach a conclusion with a funeral. He resists, refuses to give up hope, and outfits his closet with high-tech surveillance equipment. Living with his dog Thor, this hunter stays waiting in case the killer strikes again. It’s just a matter of time.
No sooner is the dead body of a young woman found with her voice box (the silence!) Than Rayburn’s security cameras show one in full ghillie suit camo chasing another crying girl. Our hero takes off in hot pursuit, and yet his rifle proves no match for the weapon of the killer of choice: an “Atlati”, a spear that can deliver speeds of 100 mph. That’s more than enough to slow Rayburn down until he can cauterize the wound in his shoulder, Rambo-style, and get back on the killer’s trail.
He is not alone. There’s a new sheriff in town in Echo Falls. She’s Alice Gustafson (Annabelle Wallis) and she feels this is her case, not Rayburn’s. She also has a personal connection to the crimes. Her troubled brother, Brooks, played by a fraternal hero Hero Fiennes Tiffin (cousin of Ralph and Joseph Fiennes) is found on the scene and resembles the main suspect. Guilt eats away at Alice since she left Brooks after the death of her parents to start a police career in Chicago. That left the boy in the care of unseen horrible people. “What did they do to you in that barn?” asks Alice, as if afraid to hear the answer. No worries. As usual, the script tells us nothing.
In fact, They were silent fills his 97 hectic minutes with fake leads that become increasingly frustrating. Coster-Waldau and Wales, so good in Peaky Blinders, do their best to foster a rooting interest in characters that the script never develops. Although the film raises some tension in the cat-and-mouse game that Rayburn plays inside and outside the law, the definitive reveal seems to come out of nowhere. You can see this kind of slow-burn thriller much better done in movies like that Wind River and shows like HBOs Real Detective. Even in these pandemic times, when we are all hungry for escapism, this long journey to a lame end hardly fills the bill.
