A mighty fine example of DIY cinema, made with a skeleton crew and on a shoestring budget, Haunters of the Silence marks a daring feature debut for the authorial, husband-and-wife duo of Heikkinens. Rooted in Poesque verses by Madison Julius Cawein (1865-1914) and personal, highly esoteric mythology, the film is a largely dialogue-free affair; an eerily absorbing mood piece that begins as a meditation on loss, gradually transforming into a nightmarish equivalent of a shamanistic trance.
Eschewing both the narrative and character arc conventions in favor of an atmosphere so dense you can cut it with a knife, this darkly resonant tone poem plunges you down a nocturnal, seemingly endless rabbit hole of its grieving protagonist, and leaves you no choice but to go with the trippy flow. Credited as K. which may be interpreted as a nod to Kafka, and portrayed by Tatu Heikkinen himself, the young widower suffers sleep paralysis which is deftly translated into a stream-of-subconscious series of puzzling, shadow-infested, time-and-space-dissolving visions, shrouded in layers of hazy and haunting aural veils. Subliminal whispers, phantasmal vocalizations, and disquieting droning bring forth a symphony of corrosive solitude which alters and enhances the texture of often irrational fears in what can be dubbed ‘the ghost process’, captured by Veleda Thorsson-Heikkinen’s camera in beautifully composed shots.
Assisted by a handful of (multi-hyphenate) people, with Brenda Evans co-creating a stop-motion sequence evocative of Jan Švankmajer, and John Haughm performing as an ominous entity, Hat Man, inter alia, the Heikkinens deliver a remarkable labor of love whose flaws are insignificant in comparison to its qualities. It goes without saying that the viewers who expect traditional horror beats are likely to be disappointed, but the more adventurous audience, especially experimental film aficionados (keeping their inner metalhead and goth alive), will undoubtedly appreciate the artists’ ambition and dedication.
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