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Welcome to another daily digest from Creepy Catalog. Today’s movie is a thriller that wasn’t quite what I was hoping for, but it still quite good. I also have some good news for fans of the Final Destination franchise, and daily trivia as always!
Movie of the Day
Today’s movie is The Quiet Ones. It’s a thriller about spicy content creators trying to have a “friendly” competition to see who can earn the most money, but egos and attitudes give way to violence and bloodshed. When I first read the write-up for the movie, I was hoping for something like Gaspar Noé’s Climax (2018). This is definitely not that, but I did like The Quiet Ones pretty well.
The story begins with Charlotte (Kelsey Cooke). Her rich father left her a house in Spain in his will, but he also left her with his massive debts. If she wants to stay in the house, she’s going to need a lot of money fast. Charlotte meets Danni (Sophie Ablett) who rakes in tons of cash as an erotic online model and video creator. Danni offers to help Charlotte get the money she needs, inviting another creator, Brylee (Isadora Leiva), to help boost the amount they can all make if they perform together. The deal is lucrative, but it starts to spin out of control when more models arrive at Charlotte’s house. On top of that, Danni and Brylee agree to have a competition to see who can earn the most money. They promise to give their earnings to Charlotte to help her out, but feelings (and drugs) get involved, and trust falters.
Amazon lists “horror” as one of the descriptors for The Quiet Ones, but that’s not really accurate. It’s definitely a thriller, and it gets pretty dark in the final act, but it never truly feels like horror. There are some psychological aspects that creep into the story as it goes along, but The Quiet Ones is not going to satisfy many people looking for a horror film.
That said, I did enjoy the movie. The push and pull between the three main characters (Charlotte, Danni, and Brylee) is the main focus of the film, and the tension between them ramps up nicely. Danni is the most interesting character by far. She’s mysterious in that we never really know what her intentions are. At times she seems open and honest, but then she’ll do something that puts her honesty into question. Sometimes she’s warm, and other times she’s cold. She’s fascinating to watch.
However, one of the most impressive feats in The Quiet Ones is that it actually made me sympathetic towards Charlotte. When she’s introduced, she’s very unlikable. She’s lazy and entitled, and it was really difficult to feel sorry for her having to try to get a job for the first time in her life. But as the story progresses, Charlotte’s helplessness and naivety become opportunities for growth. As a character, Charlotte doesn’t have much agency. Other people make decisions for her, and she is practically a passenger as stronger personalities take over her home. But she is eventually forced to take action because of everything happening around her, and by then I actually cared about what happened to her.
One aspect of The Quiet Ones that felt odd was the sudden escalation of violence at the end of the story. There’s a gradual increase in the distrust and aggression between everyone in Charlotte’s house throughout the movie, but it feels like there’s a missing scene or two right before the finale. To be fair, the story isn’t without buildup, and I think the sudden escalation was done to make a bigger impact on the viewer. From a character perspective though, it feels like too big of a leap from simmering resentment to extreme violence (very little of which we actually see). It didn’t completely take me out of the story, but it felt strange enough to give me pause.
I should also mention the usage of animations and on-screen text. There’s a lot of stylized elements utilized such as flashes of animated text and various images. For example, whenever a new character is introduced, a video game character select screen pops up and shows us a pixel-art version of the new person. It gives a sense of speed and levity to the movie, and it does work occasionally. I just don’t think it’s entirely necessary, which is evidenced by the fact that it seemed to mostly go away after a while. But then, maybe that’s why it was there to begin with, to visualize Charlotte’s journey going from fun and exciting to dark and scary. So maybe I’m wrong here.
Star Rating: 3.5 out of 5 (good)
I initially thought The Quiet Ones was a 3, but after writing about it, it’s better than I gave it credit for. I was hoping for more (or any) horror, but as a thriller, it’s definitely worth watching. I’d recommend it for fans of single-location thrillers in which the more the characters get to know each other, the more tension arises. You can rent The Quiet Ones on Prime Video.
In the News
- A trailer for Dream Eater was released yesterday. The film is about a documentary filmmaker who documents his increasingly bizarre bouts of parasomnia. The movie is scheduled for release on October 24th by Eli Roth’s studio The Horror Section. (Variety)
- Warner Bros. has plans for another new Final Destination movie after the success of Bloodlines. The co-writer of Bloodlines, Lori Evans Taylor, is set to write the seventh installment of the franchise. (The Hollywood Reporter)
Birthdays
Bill Skarsgård was born on August 9th, 1990. Bill is well-known to horror fans for his transformative roles in It (2017) and its sequel, and as Count Orlok in Nosferatu (2024). He’s also in Barbarian (2022), and he appeared in the TV series Castle Rock and Hemlock Grove.
Kate Siegel is also celebrating a birthday today. Born in 1982, Kate’s horror roles include TV series like The Haunting of Hill House (2018) and Midnight Mass (2021), as well as movies including Gerald’s Game (2017), Oujia: Origin of Evil (2016), and Hush (2016).
Also born today, in 1968, is Gillian Anderson. Gillian doesn’t have a ton of roles in horror projects, but her time spent as Dana Scully in The X-Files is more than enough to make her an icon of genre film and TV. She was also in the Hannibal television series, as well as the movie The Pale Blue Eye (2022).
More actors on August 9th:
- Robert Shaw (1927) – Quint in Jaws (1975)
- Amanda Bearse (1958) – Amy in Fright Night (1985)
- Jessica Capshaw (1976) – Dorothy in Valentine (2001)
- Adelaide Kane (1990) – Zoey in The Purge (2013)
Events on This Day
Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark was released in US theaters on August 9th, 2019. The movie effectively recreates a few of the more memorable creatures from the books, as originally illustrated by Stephen Gammell. Though an anthology film recreating a few of the best stories from the books would have been welcome, using elements from those stories as part of a new narrative is still effective. Scary Stories is one of the better PG-13 horror movies released during the 2010s. Rent Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark on Prime Video.
On August 9th, 1959, The Bat was released in theaters. Starring Vincent Price and Agnes Moorehead, The Bat is a remake of the silent film The Bat from 1926, which was a screen adaptation of the 1920 stage play of the same title, which was based on the 1908 novel The Circular Staircase by Mary Roberts Rinehart. Watch The Bat on Tubi.
Thank you for reading! Have you seen Weapons yet? I’m planning to go this weekend, and I’ll be sharing my thoughts about it soon!
