Project Silence (2023) Review
A gripping mix of action, sci-fi and horror, featuring a shady government experiment gone awry, a bridge on the verge of collapse, a toxic gas leak, and a band of trapped survivors being hunted by mutant killer dogs in thick fog, PROJECT SILENCE is one hundred minutes of breathless mayhem, and “the action scenes are dynamite” (Film Threat).
Written and directed by Kim Tae-gon, and starring PARASITE’s Lee Sun-kyun, this is South Ko-rean genre film is released in a 4K UHD edition, a beautifully de-signed collectable 4K UHD Steelbook edition, Blu-ray, and DVD.
Online reviews have unnecessarily compared sci-fi disaster flick PROJECT SILENCE to top drawer Korean flicks such TRAIN TO BUSAN. However not ALL films coming out of one country are made to be highbrow or wow the critical establishment or indeed pitched to that same level. Some films are made to do nothing more than provide big dumb fun that you will end up forgetting about soon after viewing.
PROJECT SILENCE sets out its stall early on to let viewers know it is intended to be fun and nothing more than that, and it is. If I were to have a quibble with director Tae-gon otherwise engaging ‘mad dog’ flick, it would be that the makers are in so much of a hurry to get everything established and have our key characters stranded upon the Incheon Bridge that initially it comes across as rushed, contrived and very heavy-handed.
Fortunately, it soon settles into its groove and the ninety minutes runtime zips along at a pace. Occasionally it hits the pause button affording the characters take stock of their circumstances and plan a way forward before diving back into frenzied dog-attack induced mayhem. The central dynamic of an estranged father and daughter at the forefront of the story does not always hit the emotional buttons it aims to hit but so what! There are bad tempered dogs ripping chunks out of people so who cares about failed empathy, bring on the bloody carnage!
Available to order now from Amazon and HMV