Common Sense Media Review
By Brian Costello
,
based on child development research. How do we rate?
Creepy horror about deaf woman regaining hearing; gore.
Parents Need to Know
Why Age 15+?
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The Unheard
Parent and Kid Reviews
What's the Story?
In THE UNHEARD, Chloe (Lachlan Watson) has traveled up to Boston from Maryland to undergo an experimental surgery to treat the hearing loss she suffered as a child. She lost her hearing due to meningitis shortly after the untimely death of her mother while spending the summer in a beach house in outside of Provincetown in Cape Cod. After the surgery, Chloe returns to the beach house to recover and wait for the results of the surgery. To her and the doctor's surprise, Chloe regains 80% of her hearing. However, the return of her hearing also gives her auditory hallucinations and heightened oversensitivity to sound. Unable to sleep, she watches home movies on the VCR of her childhood, but as the lights flicker and the sounds grow increasingly stranger, it seems that someone is trying to speak to Chloe through these auditory hallucinations. Meanwhile, women in the area are disappearing under strange circumstances, and as Chloe seeks to find out what it is she's hearing, it seems that it's somehow connected to what's going on in the area.
Is It Any Good?
This is an interesting concept that feels mostly squandered due to the movie's excessive length. The Unheard is trying to be a "slow burn," and for the first half, not much seems to happen besides the lead character Chloe recovering from an experimental surgery that restores the hearing she lost after coming down with meningitis after the untimely and mysterious death of her mother. There's a gratuitous childhood flashback involving a dead bird, and a gory murder of a woman not directly involved with the story during this first half, presumably to "keep it interesting," but it's actually sort of slow and boring.
The problem isn't the acting, but the length. It's a two -hour-and five-minute movie, and it could easily lose 20 minutes without anything being lost in the story. There are so many redundant scenes of Chloe hearing static-y auditory hallucinations, the viewer can be forgiven for shouting, "OK, we get it already!" Furthermore, the plot twists aren't the most surprising, and the payoff of Act 3 more or less treads the familiar path of horror movie climaxes. It's such a great premise, but the whole thing falls short and ultimately disappoints.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about horror movies like The Unheard. How is this similar to and different from other horror movies in terms of violence, gore, suspense, story?
Was the lead character a positive representation of someone with a hearing disability, or did it seem like the character was merely part of a horror movie formula? Why?
Were the plot twists effective, or did they seem predictable? Why do you think horror movies rely so heavily on plot twists?
Movie Details
- On DVD or streaming : March 31, 2023
- Cast : Lachlan Watson , Michele HIcks , Brendan Meyer
- Director : Jeffrey A. Brown
- Inclusion Information : Non-Binary Movie Actor(s) , Pansexual Movie Actor(s)
- Studio : Shudder
- Genre : Horror
- Run time : 125 minutes
- MPAA rating :
- Last updated : May 13, 2023
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