The Zone of Silence, also known as The Bermuda Triangle of Mexico. It’s an area where radios fail to work, compasses spin wildly and where a wildly off course US missile crashed in 1970. There are claims that it has a high occurrence of UFO sightings. It’s also the inspiration for Lorena Villarreal’s haunting film SILENCIO, a mix of science and supernatural with a very human core.
The story begins with the investigation into a meteorite crash in the zone in 1969. A scientist (John Noble, FRINGE, LORD OF THE RINGS: THE RETURN OF THE KING) finds a rock with strange properties. When he and a colleague accidentally trigger it they find themselves in the recent past. Moments before the car accident that claimed his family. He can’t prevent it but he does manage to save one of his granddaughters, Ana.
Now in the present Ana (Melina Matthews MAMA, DON’T SPEAK) is a psychiatrist and single mother to Felix (Ian Garcia Monterrubio). On the anniversary of the crash, one of her patients tells her he has a message from her sister. She must find her grandfathers stone, lives depend on it. But it’s not so easy, he’s still alive but his mind is gone. Until it mysteriously returns, but that’s just the start.
Part mystery, part supernatural thriller, and part human drama, SILENCIO asks some hard questions. Ones that don’t have easy answers. The stone’s powers come at a high price, are they worth it? Is it even right to use those powers given the cost? Or is it something you must do, regardless of the cost? At its heart is the issue of family and what you would do or risk for them.
SILENCIO is the kind of film where the less of the specifics you know going in the better off you are. There are several twists and surprises that I don’t want to spoil. And saying more than I have would do just that, so I’ll keep my mouth shut.
The film does have some issues most notably the frequency it moves back and forth between English and subtitled Spanish. They should have picked one or the other and stayed with it.
Tulip Pictures will release SILENCIO to US theaters on Friday, October 26th.