My quick rating – 5.3/10. I recently received an email invitation to check out Haunters of the Silence, which is one of those films that doesn’t just invite you into its story. It quietly locks the door behind you, turns off the lights, and whispers, “Good luck figuring this out.” That score comes with both respect and a slightly confused head tilt.
This is a deeply experimental, grief-soaked, dream-logic experience about a man mourning his wife and slipping into a cycle of nightmares he can’t wake from. If you’ve ever had one of those dreams where you keep “waking up” only to discover you’re still dreaming, yeah, that’s the neighborhood this movie lives in. Property values are low, reality is negotiable, and the HOA is run by existential dread.
The soundtrack does a lot of the heavy lifting here, setting the mood and signaling when something important is happening, or at least when something would like you to think it’s important. It’s like an emotional GPS recalculating every five minutes. The film mixes styles freely. Live action, abstract imagery, animated comic-strip panels, and even some stop motion touches. I genuinely liked the comic-strip inserts. They help frame the narrative and give your brain a small handle to grab onto before the movie gently pries your fingers loose again.
Performance-wise, Tatu Heikkinen (as K) is restrained yet effective, which works well against the surreal presentation. Veleda’s appearances as the wife feel intentionally distant and dreamlike – more passionate echo than physical presence. The repetition of images and sequences mirrors how real nightmares recycle elements, which is thematically strong, though it does test your attention span. I checked the runtime twice, 73 minutes, because it feels longer in that art-installation way where time becomes soup.
The film uses on-screen quotes and title cards drawn from Madison Julius Cawein’s poetry, among other sources, to build atmosphere and thematic structure. Sometimes they help. Sometimes they feel like philosophical pop-up ads interrupting your dread.
Now, I need to address the arthouse elephant in the room. For a few moments, I feared this was heading into Skinamarink territory, which for me is cinematic broccoli without seasoning. Thankfully, Haunters of the Silence actually has intention, structure, and emotional purpose. It’s not just vibes and darkness stretched to feature length. It knows what it wants to say, even if the path there is foggy and occasionally wanders off the trail to look at a symbolic tree.
Knowing this was made for around $2,000 by a married couple who co-wrote and co-directed it, with Tatu handling cinematography and Veleda the editing and sound, makes it feel like a very personal, handmade expression of grief. It plays less like a conventional film and more like stepping into someone else’s processing of loss. Thank you, Tatu Heikkinen and Veleda Thorsson-Heikkinen, for sharing your movie with me.
Not a hand-holding journey. More like a hand-releasing one. Watch it for the experience, not the roadmap. (More streaming options will be added as they become available.)
