‘Voice of Shadows’ VOD Review
Stars: Bee Vang, Corrinne Mica, María José Vargas Agudelo, Martin Harris, Guillermo Blanco, Jane Hammill, Michael Paul Levin, Sean R Jr. Soukkala | Written and Directed by Nicholas Bain
Voice of Shadows is a slow-moving gothic-style horror about a young man, Gabriel (Guillermo Blanco), who tries to prevent his dark past from repeating itself when his girlfriend Emma (Corrinne Mica) inherits an estate where she needs to abide by eccentric stipulations for the deal to go through.
I will say this for Voice of Shadows, writer/director Nicholas Bain knows how to craft atmosphere. This film starts off on an eerie note and things don’t get any less creepy as time goes on. Making three people visiting an old lady (early on in the film), in broad daylight, feels like three people facing off against pure evil is a remarkable feat. Unfortunately for Bain, it does feel – at times – that atmosphere is all that this film has.
It’s not Bain’s fault, he’s clearly been inspired by numerous haunted house films that have come before and as such he sticks to the usual tropes and cliches of the genre. So much so that it does feel like there are no surprises here. It’s all very by the numbers. Don’t get me wrong. Voice of Shadows is a fantastic entry into the sub-genre but.. if Bain had applied that obvious skill in crafting atmosphere into crafting a more original story, one that tried to avoid the usual haunted house/supernatural thriller tropes then there could have been something special here.
By making this feel LESS like a stereotypical genre film Bain could have given us a remarkably creepy, fresh-feeling haunted house film – one that deals with both faith and the supernatural (the faith angle is a particular high point of this film). Instead, we get a story that feels all too familiar and as such, for me, doesn’t ever really live up to the disturbing atmosphere Bain generates.
**½ 2.5/5
Voice of Shadows will be available on digital and streaming platforms from December 2, courtesy of Miracle Media.
