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★★★
Directed by: #JonKent
Written by: #JonKent
Starring: #SamanthaShaw
Anyone who says that those random creaks and groans empty houses make don’t creep them out is a bare-faced liar. Even the bravest of us imagine the worst when those noises keep us awake late into the night. Make a Noise imagines the horror of realising that the source of such noises is not the wind, but the manifestation of our darkest fears.
A woman (Samantha Shaw) settles down late one night alone. As she prepares to go to bed, she is creeped out by a creaking sound emanating from beneath the stairs. Trying to put her mind at ease, she investigates the source of the noise to dispel the silly notion she is not alone. But in doing so, she finds that her fears may not be unjustified…
Make a Noise is a short, minimalist horror film which utilises classic horror tropes to tell an effective, functional story that is well-directed, if a little too safe and conventional to be memorable. The slow-build of tension relies on brilliant sound editing which makes every creak and crackle pierce the very soul of the audience, as Samantha Shaw’s nameless protagonist becomes slowly more paranoid about another presence in her house. The film echoes A Quiet Place with how it emphasises the ability of noise to incite fear, without anything scary actually on screen until the director requires.
With a runtime of four minutes, the film is really a demonstration of effective horror filmmaking techniques rather than a comprehensive story. The protagonists short experience is confined to her home, and we see little in the way of motivation or character development. As a muscle-stretching exercise for director Jon Kent, the film is impressive – particularly with the aforementioned sound-editing and its use in building fear. However, beyond this, the film never really brings anything to the table audiences will not have seen before. The monster itself takes a form that veteran horror fans will be overly familiar with, and the jump scares are standard horror fare.
The film skates around some interesting themes and ideas. Tapping into the audience’s primeval fear of unknown noises is an important element of the movie, and a hint towards having the fear of someone within your own home, and feeling unable to alert anyone to the danger for fear of further retribution is present. However, the short runtime never really allows these elements to be explored further. This doesn’t detract from what the film does get right, but is evidence of the untapped potential of the film as a horror.
Technically impressive, especially with its use of sound, Make a Noise is a perfectly competent horror which lacks a little in the way of the originality required to truly have it stand out. As a bite-sized horror thrill however, the short is a quick, pulsating thrill which makes effective use of tried-and-tested horror techniques.
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