The Quiet Ones review

As a child, any kind of horror film can scare you, since you're naive and unsure of what's happening. Only when you get older do you realize 

what's scary and what's stupid, because you're more intelligent than you used to be. Horror films these days are a hit and miss genre, because they constantly repeat the same tricks over and over, hoping that because it worked the first time, it should work again. As is the case for 2014's The Quiet Ones.

The Quiet Ones stars Jared Harris as a college professor at Oxford in the 1970's who begins to conduct experiments with other students to try and heal the disturbed Jane Harper. The professor believes that Jane has telekinetic energy manifested as the entity she calls Evey that is causing her behavior and that he can remove it like a tumor and cure her. As the experiments continue, things more and more dangerous and supernatural for the disbelieving professor. 

First off, the film has been marketed as being based on true events, which is a flat out lie. It is inspired by a real parapsychology experiment that happened in 1972, but the film and it's events are purely fictional. If you want to know more about those differences and the real experiment, read

this article on History vs Hollywood http://www.historyvshollywood.com/reelfaces/quiet-ones/

Bringing up its claims, the film is also a shameless knockoff of 2013's The Conjuring. It was also marketed as being based on true events, but the events did occur, although not as exaggerated as it is in the film. The characters in the film are also based on the real individuals linked to the events. The Quite Ones borrows the curse following them out of the house theme and constantly throws jumpscares that aren't scary but make you wanna retitle the movie the Loud ones. These same jumpscares aren't anything new, such as constant banging sounds and a poor special effect of ectoplasm stolen from another horror film.

The character of Jane Harper is also eerily similar to another character in the horror genre. Jane Harper is revealed to be the entity Evey that has been plaguing her. She had no memory of her original name and had it changed by others to try and protect her. This is similar to Alessa Gillespie from the Silent Hill series of games and films, who is reborn as Sharon De Silva and Heather Mason. 

The only positive point I have is the acting. Even with a terrible story and terrible excuse for scares, the actors do their best to try and sell what's going on. Jared Harris is always on top form, especially as driven Professor Coupland who'll do anything to make himself credible, even compromise his and his students well being. Sam Claflin, coming off his role in Catching Fire, is decent as cameraman Brian who cares for the wellbeing of Jane and ultimately finds the truth about her past. Olivia Cooke is also great as Jane Harper, easily coming off as just another disturbed patient, but when she's not having one of her episodes, she shows the characters potential at being a sweet and kind girl who just wants to get better. The other two students in on the experiment  are so stereotypical that you just don't care when you see them die along with the professor and Jane.

In the end, this film is another knockoff of a better horror film. I recommend not wasting time on this and check out The Conjuring, a far superior film.