The Quiet Ones is a 2014 British supernatural horror film directed by John Pogue. Released theatrically on 10 April 2014 in the United Kingdom and 25 April 2014 in the United States, the film stars Jared Harris as a college professor attempting to prove poltergeists are manifestations of the human psyche and not supernatural beings. The film is loosely based on the Philip experiment, a 1972 parapsychology experiment conducted in Toronto.
Plot
A student attends the class of college professor Coupland who wishes to prove that the supernatural does not exist. He shows a video of a possessed boy and explains that research will be done to find a cure for this kind of disease. One of his students, Brian McNeil, is invited to film the experiment process and joins Coupland, his two assistants Krissi and Harry, and their subject Jane Harper, a young woman who generates strange phenomena and has been abandoned. Jane is generally kept locked in a room with loud rock music playing during the daytime to prevent her from sleeping in the hopes that the psychological agitation will result in increased activity.
Coupland and his assistants settle in an isolated house in the countryside to keep experimenting on Jane, whose negative energy takes the form of "Evey", an infant doll-like creature only Jane sees. Jane is then given a physical doll to put her negative energy in to destroy it. The further the researchers drive Jane to insanity with their methods, the stranger things get around the house. Brian is upset by the way Jane is treated and the lack of ethics in the experiment. Evey's apparitions become increasingly aggressive and Jane begins to harm herself. There are also worrying indicators that any attempt to harm Evey harms Jane as well.
Coupland refuses to stop the inhumane experimentation while the others become convinced that Evey is a true malevolent force. Brian and Jane become closer, sharing a kiss. When the group experience another attack by Evey, Brian goes to Oxford, where he discovers that a symbol that was marked into Jane is from a cult. The cult worshiped a Sumerian demon. They also performed experiments on a young girl a few years ago; their leader believed that Evey Dwyer, a girl with clairvoyant abilities, was the one to bring their "idol" into the physical world. Everybody in the cult died in a house fire that Evey set, including Evey herself. Brian goes back and tells them about the cult, he is certain that Evey is a demonic presence who is possessing Jane and convinces Harry and Krissi of this, but Coupland denies his theory and responds that Evey must be a figment from Jane's past rather than a demonic force.
After a heated argument, the group are all marked with the same symbol Jane had. Krissi and Harry are gruesomely murdered by an unknown force. Jane realizes that she was the little girl that supposedly died in the house fire; she was born with clairvoyant powers and had set the house on fire to kill everyone. The authorities changed her name to Jane to give her a normal life and that's why all her negative energy is manifesting; Evey isn't a demon, she's Jane's real identity (one who can't escape the trauma of her past life). Jane/Evey then attacks Brian, only for them both to be knocked out by Coupland. When Brian wakes up, he finds Coupland giving Jane a lethal injection as he thinks stopping her heart long enough for the negative energy to dissipate would permanently cure her. However, before Coupland is given a chance to be proven either wrong or correct, Brian saves Jane and subdues Coupland, but Jane locks him out of the room and commits suicide by setting herself on fire.
The screen cuts to film footage, showing Brian sitting in a chair, holding a camera. Somebody asks him what happened and how everybody died. Brian explains that everything that happened was captured on film. The person says that there is nothing on the film, and that everything in the house, including the films, were destroyed by the fire. Brian laughs manically and his hand starts to smoke, just as Jane's did.
Cast
- Jared Harris as Professor Joseph Coupland
- Sam Claflin as Brian McNeil
- Olivia Cooke as Jane Harper
- Erin Richards as Kristina Dalton
- Rory Fleck-Byrne as Harry Abrams
- Laurie Calvert as Phillip
- Max Pirkis as David Q
- Aldo Maland as Young David
- Tracy Ray as David Q's Mother
- Richard Cunningham as Provost
Production
Hammer Film Productions began principal photography of the film on 12 June 2012 in England. Filming started in July in Oxfordshire. The film's director is John Pogue and it was first written by Tom DeVille and then revised by Craig Rosenberg, Oren Moverman, and John Pogue. Ben Holden and James Gay-Rees produced the film, while Glenn Garland was the editor and Matyas Erdely was the cinematographer. Camille Brenda was the costume designer of the film.
Filming
Principal photography began on 12 June 2012 by Hammer Film Productions. Later in July filming began in Oxfordshire and Hertfordshire. Filming took place at Merton College and the Bodleian Library in Oxford. Hammer Films wrapped the filming on 16 July 2012.
Marketing
A trailer appeared on the web on 31 October 2013.
Release
Lionsgate Films acquired the rights to distribute the film in the United Kingdom and United States. It released the film on 11 April 2014 in the UK and 25 April in the US.
Home media
The film was released on DVD and Blu-ray on 19 August 2014.
Reception
Box office
The film grossed $3,880,053 in its opening weekend. Domestically, the film grossed $8,509,867 and $9,325,000 internationally, grossing a worldwide total of $17,834,867.
Critical reception
Critical reception for The Quiet Ones has been generally mixed. The film currently holds a rating of 36% on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 69 reviews with the critical consensus stating "While it definitely sports a few palpable scares, The Quiet Ones finds Hammer Films trading too heavily on past glories." The film has a 41/100 on Metacritic based on 24 reviews indicating mixed or average reviews.
References
External links
- The Quiet Ones at the Internet Movie Database
- The Quiet Ones at Box Office Mojo
- The Quiet Ones at Rotten Tomatoes
- The Quiet Ones at Metacritic
- The Quiet Ones at the ComingSoon.net
- Hammer Films - The Quiet Ones
- The Quiet Ones at History vs. Hollywood
