An Average Movie-Goer’s Review
No spoilers! If you would like spoilers – check out the Spoiler post
I love horror movies and if I’m going to watch them anyway, why not write an entertaining/funny review from the POV of an average movie-goer and not a professional critic.
Today we’re looking at 2020’s Spanish horror Voces also known as Don’t Listen
A house flipper moves his family into his latest project but his son soon starts hearing voices at night that threatens the family.
Is Don’t Listen (2020) Scary?
Don’t Listen has some effective tension-building scenes and a bunch of jump scares. While a large number of the jump scares work, the ones that don’t feel cheap and lazy. By the end of the film, you’ll have jumped a few times and felt a bit scared but that fear won’t last too long after the credits roll… unless you just moved into a clearly haunted house and you’ve started hearing voices at night.
Review:
Don’t Listen is good. The acting is good, dialogue is good, but I do feel like the movie was trying to over-explain the story to the audience. If you’re a writer you know the worry that if you don’t explain everything in detail, the audience won’t get it or they’ll miss something important, you forget that audiences are pretty smart.
Don’t get me wrong, this doesn’t happen a lot but it happens enough that you notice it a few times and you’ll end up saying “we knew that already right?”
Besides the above, which I feel is a bit nitpicky, the only other negative I have is that it feels like a jump scare fest at times. Some do work but other scenes feel like they’re telling you “Get ready, there’s a jump scare about to happen at the exact moment you think it is.” But, there are some good surprises and jump scares that you don’t expect or that are well done.
For the most part, the plot is well-told and well-paced, there’s good suspense and tension, and, while it’s not mind-blowing, the story is entertaining. Overall I recommend Don’t Listen to any horror fan that wants to casually watch something that’s entertaining but won’t blow your mind.
Cast IMDB
Stuff to Ignore
Metacritic – No Page