Haunters Of The Silence (2025)
a review by Evan Landon
It always bewilders me how students in film school are usually the ones to create experimental films. It is almost as if it is a required course, then abandoned the genre as soon as graduation is finished. Speaking of Finnish. . .
Haunters Of The Silence is a 2025 experimental folk horror film from newcomer Tatu Heikkinen in his filmmaking debut. The term “folk horror” might be a bit of a stretch, but it definitely has that kind of ambiance throughout. I would love to tell you what exactly happens in this movie, but I honestly cannot remember anything that wholly resembles a plot. That is a common issue in experimental films though, so it does not get any points for or against it there.
In it's 72 minute run time, our unnamed main character is plagued by otherworldly visions of a being in a top hat that tortures him from the moment he wakes up to the moment he goes to sleep. There are mementos of a woman, who I can only assume is his wife because she is played by his wife (Veleda Thorsson-Heikkinen) who also helped write and direct the film. In fact, with a budget of around $2k, the two wore many different hats in post-production to lower costs and protect the quality of the picture. That is probably the most noteworthy part of the production notes, in my opinion.
There were a few parts that reminded me of the French impressionist and German expressionist films of the early 1900's, as well as Ingmar Bergman's The Seventh Seal and Andrei Tarkovsky's Andrei Rublev, but that may be because they are all artsy-fartsy pictures in black and white. Don't worry, I'm surprised I know all of that shit too, so I will spare you the editing and cinematography discussion because aspect ratios and camera lenses are boring. I am absolutely certain that Heikkenin knows all about that though.
One thing I found interesting about Haunters Of The Silence was how Heikkenin created the story based off of his own experiences with sleep paralysis which brings about that drunken, psychedelic bleeding of thoughts and dreamscapes that propel the storyline. . Or whatever resembles one, anyways. There really is no fulfilling end to the story because it feels like it is just a perpetual nightmare of never being able to fully rest. The machinations of circadian rhythms is how we get to the fifth stage of sleep, Rapid Eye Movement (R.E.M. no, not the band), where our brain is actually able to fully reset by slipping into our subconscious for our human minds to dream. That, right there, is the true waking horror of this film.
If you love experimental folk horror flicks that conjure images to tell their narrative instead of the usual second-viewing expository extravaganza that are being celebrated all over streaming service, this 72 minute outing is definitely worth checking out. To everyone else who doesn't think they would enjoy it, this may not be for you.
2.5 Out Of 5