Silent Retreat (2013) Review

Tricia Lee’s part-prison part-camp horror, Silent Retreat, shows a group of girls stuck in a hell hole of a rehabilitation retreat, run by men with an obvious lust for power and control. The girls are not allowed to talk, make eye contact, or possess any form of entertainment (ie: mp3 player). So although it’s not clear why exactly most of the girls have been required to attend this retreat, it’s quite obvious that the goal of the staff is not to rehabilitate this women and better their lives. Instead the men that run the place are more or less training the women to obey men, and learn the traits that any good misogynistic pig would desire in a woman. In fact, the head honcho all but says that outright at one point. As a whole, it can almost be looked at as a non-exploitative take on women-in-prison films that instead focuses on the horror/thriller aspect of the escape or revolt scenario. But then it takes that idea a step further by throwing in an unknown threat into the surrounding woods.

There’s a blatant theme throughout Silent Retreat, and that is the rebellion of women against a misogynistic atmosphere. So that can be applied to many scenarios, be it a patriarchical society, a religious community that holds these kinds of values of unequality, or a male-dominated industry (like the horror film industry that the director herself has indicated as bearing an influence on this film). It’s a good point to be made, and a personal battle for Lee herself. However, that point has a tendency to get muddled by an edging-on-over-exaggerated scenario, basically in that the retreat itself isn’t provided with enough backstory to make a whole lot of sense, and by the end everything is overshadowed by what’s lurking in the forest, which makes even less sense. I’m all for over-the-top films and exaggerated circumstances, but when you combine that with a serious tone throughout, it just becomes kinda goofy.

The male characters are scum, and even worse, they’re entitled scum with a manufactured sense of power. Robert Nolan (Familiar) portrays that all too well, and resonates that evil from the very moment his character is introduced. At times it’s a bit cheesy, with the other male staff members following suit, which again wouldn’t be an issue if it weren’t for the serious tone. The female attendees, with lead characters played by Chelsea Jenish and Sofia Banzhaf, have a tendency to underplay their current situations. It’s a tough balance to create because the majority of the thriller aspect relies on the characters, therefore the standard indie horror acting quality is held under a microscope. As a result, the lack of stand-out performances makes for an underwhelming amount of tension.

(Minor spoiler alert!) When things really take a turn for the worst we go from dramatic thriller to full on creature feature. It’s a bit of a drastic turn, with very little foundation or backstory, but it allows room for some nice action, gore and violence.

Overall, Silent Retreat is a good early effort from new director Tricia Lee, that puts a few too many ideas into one scenario and ends up confusing the story between a dramatic thriller and an otherworldly horror. At times the film seems pulled in two directions, rather than just a multi-layered story. Despite these critiques, it’s still definitely an entertaining watch. The production value is impressive considering the budget, which makes for a gorgeous looking film, especially the forest scenes at night (like the above screenshot). So although it seems to have some trouble with an over-ambitious plot that gets muddled at points, it shows a great deal of potential for Lee and her crew. Check out her other film, thriller Clean Break (review here), and join us in watching where this budding genre filmmaker goes from here.