Project Silence – Movie Review (3/5)

PROJECT SILENCE is a new Sci-Fi Horror Thriller from South Korea (org. title is Talchul: Project Silence). It’s fast-paced and reminded me of a 1990s action movie so you might guess a few twists. Read our full Project Silence movie review here!

PROJECT SILENCE is a South Korean sci-fi horror thriller (org. title: Talchul: Project Silence).  With its much faster pace, it reminded me a lot of a 1990s action movie so you might guess a few of the twists along the way.

Continue reading our Project Silence movie review below. You can find it in US theaters on July 12, 2024.

A genre plot with a 1990s action driver

Most of Project Silence plays out on South Korea’s famously long cable-stayed Incheon Grand Bridge. We meet Jung-won (Lee Sun-kyun) and his daughter as they head to the Incheon Airport. Suddenly a thick fog causes a massive chain-reaction crash.

A very brutal and realistic scene showing a pile-up crash happening. Of course, this results in many injuries and everyone being stuck on the bridge in the chaotic aftermath. However, it gets much worse when mutated military dogs are accidentally released from their transport vehicle.

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You will definitely want to check out Project Wolf Hunting >

And yes, the dogs do start preying on humans as they have been trained to. Now, the bridge is shut down and on the verge of collapsing, the survivors must band together to make it through the night while trying to uncover the origin of these dogs.

Starring the late Parasite star

Lee Sun-kyun (Dr. Brain) portrays the lead character in this disaster thriller. He also co-starred in the successful Oscar-winning South Korean movie Parasite (2019). Sadly, Lee Sun-kyun is no longer among us as he passed away in December 2023.

Other than this sci-fi horror thriller, he managed to finish one more movie before his passing. The final movie released with him as the star is Sleep (2023). This is a horror, comedy, and mystery hybrid that premiered at Cannes in 2023 and has been playing festivals worldwide.

Also, in Project Silence co-starring with Lee Sun-kyun are Ju Ji-hoon (Kingdom), Kim Hee-won (Unlocked), Moon Sung-Keun (Forgotten, Burning), Park Ju-hyun (Extracurricular), and Park Hee-bon (Happiness).

Finally, we have Kim Su-an from Train to Busan. She was the little girl traveling with her father in the South Korean zombie mega-hit, and now she’s the teenage girl traveling with her father.

Watch Project Silence in US theaters!

Tae-gon Kim (Familyhood) is the director of this sci-fi, horror, thriller hybrid with lots of wild action sequences. The screenplay comes from director Tae-gon Kim alongside Yong-hwa Kim (The Moon) and Joo-Suk Park (Train to Busan).

Now, it will come as no surprise for Heaven of Horror readers, that I loathe violence and cruelty against animals, so I knew this movie would challenge me.

Fortunately, South Korean productions tend to show violence against animals and babies via obvious CGI. Good CGI, but still clearly CGI. You will see the dogs, feel for and with the dogs, but you will also see them attack random people and understand why humans must fight back.

This helped me a lot. Also, so did the plot which makes it apparent that these dogs are not cruel by nature. Instead, humans (aren’t we always the problem?!) have made them vicious and violent as part of a project meant for anti-terrorism tasks.

As an action movie, the characters are written in a more stereotypical way than we see in most South Korean movies. Also, the runtime is just around 100 minutes (1 hour and 41 minutes), so it’s a quick watch. Not one I need to watch again, but it did work well as a solid genre flick.

PROJECT SILENCE will be opening in U.S. theaters on July 12, 2024.

Details

Director: Tae-gon Kim
Writers: Tae-gon Kim, Yong-hwa Kim, Joo-Suk Park
Cast: Lee Sun-kyun, Ju Ji-hoon, Kim Hee-won, Moon Sung-Keun, Ye Soo-jung, Kim Tae-woo, Park Hee-bon, Park Ju-hyun, Kim Su-an