‘Somewhere Quiet’ is a horror thriller that follows Meg (Jennifer Kim), a woman trying to reintegrate and adjust to normalcy after having been kidnapped. Trying to find peace, she goes away to her husband’s family summer home by the ocean, attempting to move past her trauma.
Opening on Meg running towards a driver she has flagged down, we assume this to be the inciting incident, - her escape from the kidnappers we soon learn of. Quiet, tense and somewhat cagey, Meg and Scott (Kentucker Audley) make their way to his family summer home. Awkward and with a suspicious draw to him, Scott tries to accommodate Meg as she struggles to feel safe or comfortable anywhere.
The story unfolds slowly, leaving us speculating wildly about what exactly happened to Meg. Topping it off with Scott’s stunted behavior and the introduction of his larger-than-life cousin Madelin (Marin Ireland), the two seemingly act in concert in trying to alienate Meg. Every activity that the group partake in seems to leave Meg on the outside, inviting us to start to understand what she feels like.
Troubled and tense for the most part, Meg seems to slowly return to normalcy as she fixes up an old motorcycle she finds in the boathouse. Doing what she does best as an engineer, she gets the motor running and seems to experience some form of joy in going for a drive. In stark contrast to that, her return home to Scott ends with conflict as she tries to confront him about the time she was away and finds him stonewalling her, working against him in trying to preserve good intentions or a strong moral character.
Growing more suspicious of her spouse, Meg becomes increasingly paranoid about Scott and Madeline’s seemingly unorthodox relationship. The unwelcoming environment, largely by way of Madeline’s backhanded compliments and thinly veiled slights, make Meg grow more unsure about their involvement or plan to work against her.
Where it had been hinted at that she is teetering on the edge of instability, what drives Meg over the edge is learning that Scott had withheld the truth from the police. Hiding the fact he had received the ransom videos for Meg, the confirmation of her suspicions prove to her that she can never be too sure of anything, that even the people closes to her can betray her trust.
Making one question reality and what can only be seen by Meg is where the beauty of the film lies. So often has the film shown what may or may not be there, that together with Meg we slip through her cracked psyche to land somewhere in between the two worlds. Not absolutely certain of what can be trusted, the film closes on the unreliable narrator as she makes her way off the family compound, revealed to be the opening scene of the film.
Flawless in its editing, the film unfolds with a quiet yet unsettling flow. Showing us the world through Meg’s eyes, her traumatized past overshadows the present. Mounting in tension the film ramps up and becomes more unhinged, cut to deliver increasingly perplexing and unnerving scenes, an absolute credit to the film’s editor Sofi Marshal.
A unique and original take on a horror trope that is very familiar to everyone, Olivia West Lloyd, the film’s writer and director, has chosen to shine a light on the ‘final girl’ after escaping the chaos and terror. Leaning into Meg trying to unpack the trauma she has experienced, Lloyd posits that the escape from her captors, in Meg’s case, was not the end of her ordeal.
Rather, the creator spotlights the mental and emotional challenge that leaving that time and place behind can be, as Meg had escaped her kidnappers, but had not let go of the incident. Further exacerbating the situation, Meg’s return home prevents her from healing, as the truth must out and she cannot start moving past it until she has uncovered everything about her time when kidnapped.
Unnerving and painful to watch, Meg’s journey is that of anguish and suffering. She may have expected for the trouble to be over on her homecoming, but returning to a secret filled and disaffecting environment provides for a nightmare filled trip to the woods, with seemingly everything working against her. For the optimistic viewer the film ends on a positive note, - Meg drives away from her husband, finally free. For a more open conclusion however, the film may invite suggestion of a continuous, unbearable and lifelong struggle, one which may have already pushed Meg too far.
An intense and challenging watch, ‘Somewhere Quiet’ has everything working in its favour, excellent story and direction, seamless and charged editing and an excellent cast, with every member playing to their utmost to deliver a thought provoking and frightening insight into the fragmented mind of a kidnapping survivor. Tense and uncomfortable, the film creeps in and looms large, leaving nothing but frightening and complex emotions to be unpacked thereafter.
Score: 4/4
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