It has been a fair while since I watched a truly experimental horror, and the Tatu Heikkinen and Veleda Thorsson-Heikkinen co-directed and co-written Haunters of the Silence is definitely that. This is a low budget indie arthouse folk horror that was shot on a low cost of $2,000. I'm not going to lie, this type of movie is not my favourite sub-genre of horror, but even with that in mind, for a feature length debut movie, I was very impressed with the filmmaking techniques here.
K (Heikkinen) returns to his remote woodland home after a lonely pilgrimage to the sea to scatter some ashes. Heading to bed for the night, he is initially alerted to the proximity alarm notifications on his phone telling him the camera has been triggered. After some investigating and finding nothing, he mutes his notifications and returns to bed. It is here that he encounters a intruder dressed all in black (John Haughm), with a trench coat and a fedora concealing his identity. In terror, K flees his home into the nearby woods, beginning a long night of nightmares and fear for the poor man as the mystery figure gives chase.
My problem with experimental films is my relatively low tolerance for the style of these. In this instance, I lasted thirty minutes before the shine started to wear off a bit. That first half hour I was completely hooked though. The first act had the most semblance to a traditionally told story, playing out in linear fashion. At times with the night time atmosphere, this had a feeling of an adult fronted Skinamarink; the feel of a perpetual nightmare with no end, full of audio and visual hallucinations. This all adds to the off-kilter feel, the movie including among its melting pot discordant music, black and white segments, slow motion scenes, stop motion, animation, and kaleidoscopic images. It was all very arthouse and also legitimately impressive, especially with the sublime editing and cinematography.
The middle of the film's tale got a lot more abstract. Lots of staring at skulls for minutes at a time, and a neat stop motion section that has bones forming into patterns and shapes. Here was where Haunters of the Silence did lose me for a bit, these long sections were abstract and didn't feel like much was happening during them. It remains though, impressively put together, the visuals and sound combining to feel like an art installation - each and every image intricately placed.
The arthouse feel does lead to some genuine moments of horror. I loved the claustrophobically intimate feel of the first act with the rain hammering down outside, and the film throughout never loses the feeling of experiencing someone's nightmare. K is a silent protagonist, and outside of the film's constant score, the only dialogue found comes from TV chatter, voicemail messages, and a lecture on a gramophone record. No surprises, the story is heavily implied to actually be a nightmare the protagonist has slipped into, with obvious suggestions of sleep paralysis (IMDB states one of the director's own experience of sleep paralysis led to the seed of this film).
The hat wearing intruder plays a key role, though isn't present for the entire movie, showing up time and again. He was effective, but more so was an animated comic strip that showed the interactions between a man and an evil hypnotist in simple but creepy ink drawing. There were some great parts here, and the variety was constant. Day abruptly turning to night, a photo in a frame that starts to bleed into reality, as well as the ending scene were all highlights for me.
Experimental film such as this are an acquired taste, so this won't be for everyone. For me, I found it slightly exhausting to watch at times, but this was a masterclass of filmmaking nonetheless. This was masterfully edited, and felt like it had clear vision for what it was trying to tell. Expect long scenes of hallucinagenic images speedily spliced together, and an unwillingness to adhere to more traditional ways of telling a story, but all done in an often fascinating way. Haunters of the Silence premiered at the Serbest International Film Festival in 2025, and it won 'Best Experimental Film' at the Paris Film Awards later that year. This was released for streaming on Tubi in February.
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