In ‘Sound of Violence’, Alexis, a sound engineer, helps an aspiring musician, Josh, win the drum machine of his dreams in a competition in a mall. She mentors him and helps him find his groove to compose the winning beat. Once he submits his creation, it triggers a chain reaction revealing the competition booth to be a gruesome contraption. Through Josh’s new beat and a horrific death, Alexis’ creative design comes to fruition directing the macabre music she envisioned.
Alexis goes on a killing spree trying to find the right gruesome sound to fight her beats, in this horror film that is unique and bloody fun. Firstly i love the concept of the film where beats can almost possess you to do something good or evil, and what if your passion was to capture sounds of murder? The tone swerves from being a Saw bloodbath to an inspiring Whiplash like story of perseverance and honing your craft.
Let’s be clear, you never really root for Alexis, but you are locked in from the minute she starts creating her music. You sympathize with her, having progressive hearing loss and using her music as a last way to hear again. Her roommate Marie is her rock to lean on, but is unaware of the dark and sinister things Alexis is doing. Both the actresses have great chemistry and were great in their roles.
I also loved how gross and fun the deaths were. Each felt unique and I could only watch through one eye. The expert sound design also helps with the cringe you feel listening to these deaths that make the film more unique. It has a somewhat ASL direction that I didn’t expect either that after seeing ‘Coda’ this year makes me happy to see more of this genre.
Overall, ‘Sound of Violence’ is unique, disturbing, and gruesome in all the right ways. Definitely go check this out
