Sound of Violence – A Shallow Character Study With Unrealized Vision

Sound of Violence is the story of Alexis Reeves (Brown), a deaf child whose hearing returns after a traumatic family tragedy during her childhood. An adult Alexis is then revealed to be obsessed with the ‘sound of violence’ and then proceeds to create her ‘dream music’, discovering a little of herself along the way. With the film, writer-Director Alex Noyer attempts to bring divergent genres – music, slasher and psychological drama – together in this experimental film. However, the biggest takeaways are right there in the title, sound and violence.

Reeves, is passionate about music. Not the everyday kind that most enjoy, no, she has a very peculiar taste – the sound of pain in violent torture. The reason for this dates back to her childhood. The setting for a musician’s hunger to create her version of ‘dream music’ is perfectly set up as she is associated with a music school, visits records stores, and her friendly roommate Marie is always there for her. When it comes to the music of the film itself, the score is not congruent enough with the theme of the film, but it does offer some glimpses of Sound of Metal-like sound editing.

With all the normal stuff in place, the final piece of the puzzle remains – violence. Reeves goes after strangers at first to get them for recording what she wants. Subjected to a slew of gruesome torture techniques including cuts, stabs, electric shock, and other unimaginable horrors, the film uses all the classic tropes of torturing. Despite the subject matter, very little gore is shown on screen. As Sound of Violence progresses, it becomes increasingly darker, reflecting how the protagonist is sinking further and further in her obsessive wallow. It is appreciable that the film stays true to this segment of the genre as audiences are led from one crime to another, the suspense of her next move gripping us. The film does gets too ambitious and loses sight of its nature as a character study about the lengths of psychotic obsession in the form of a subplot connecting the crime aspect of her obsession.

When dealing with such a troubled anti-hero protagonist, it is natural to think about Joker. There are many similarities between the two like a character study, childhood trauma, psychological issues, crimes and violence, strained relationships, and so on. This film does take that angle with Alexis and those around her, trying to bring audiences inside of her mind but the film does so by provides the bare minimum without much in the way of depth. This expounding of the decay of the human condition in adverse situations is missing. Though this could be due to its short running time, Sound of Violence would be better served with more moments to relate to Alexis’s perilous condition.

For an independent film, Sound of Violence has worthy production values. The production design deserves some credit as it impeccably brings to life the world of a music fanatic with the various instruments and devices needed for music production, the stores and streets, and the overall environment. The cinematography also deserves to be commended.

In the end, Sound of Violence certainly holds its director’s vision to the forefront but unfortunately falters somewhere in its execution and story. Having strong secondary storylines (or none at all) would have made the film lot more memorable.

still courtesy of You Know Films/No Office Films

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