PROJECT SILENCE (2023)

Available On Demand and digital download from CJ Entertainment!
Directed by Kim Tae-gon.
Written by Kim Tae-gon, Park Joo-suk, Kim Yong-hwa.
Trailer: https://youtu.be/vUBUXeT_YLI

When a dense fog rolls over South Korea, it causes a massive pileup in the middle of a bridge. Among the twisted metal and wounded passengers is a military vehicle transporting a top-secret government experiment called Project Silence—a group of genetically altered dogs meant to be used in the military, but scheduled to be euthanized as inferior product. When the dogs are freed, they begin to massacre those on the bridge. A small group including a government official and his daughter, a stoner tow truck driver, an elderly couple, a star golfer and her caddie and one of the scientists in charge of Project Silence attempt to beat all odds and survive the night against ferocious super-Rotweillers whose sole purpose is to destroy everything in their path.

PROJECT SILENCE is undeniably fun. Following a typical disaster movie format by trapping a bunch of different people in a single location and then upending the world around them, PROJECT SILENCE moves at a rapid pace from the beginning and never lets up. First it smashes you I. The face by putting you in the middle of the pile up to beat all pile up. Trucks overturn. Cars wipe out people who get out to inspect their cars. The whole thing is mayhem and director Kim Tae-gon places you smack dab in the midst of it.

But just when things begin to calm down and the cars are all toppled, the dogs are let loose, and the real fun begins. Yes, it is a wonky premise—dogs genetically altered by the government running wild and attacking civilians. But again, this film doesn’t let you breathe or think long enough to recognize this concept is so batshit. The prolonged dog attack scenes are some glorious carnage indeed.

One of the smart things PROJECT SILENCE does is keep the dogs obscured in the fog. Not only does this make things all the scarier as at any time, toothy horror could leap from the swirling mist. The fog also covers up any CGI glitches that might be more obvious if visibility were clear. Don’t get me wrong, the CG dogs are quite good, but the dog just makes them more real and menacing.

This being a South Korean film I think there are a few things that just don’t translate well. The humor is often way too goofy and felt out of synch with the horror around it. One of the characters, a stoner tow truck driver, is constantly quipping and being shown in goofy situations. Those comedic effects characters don’t really work in American disaster movies like Godzilla or San Andreas, and they don’t work in PROJECT SILENCE either. There is also a goofy scene where the golfer has to hit a goofball at the windshield of a bus full of snarling dogs that felt unnecessary and put in there just to justify having a pro golfer among the survivors and give her something golfy to do. Again, it’s unnecessary goofiness that distracts from the dire situation.

Otherwise, this is a strongly acted and cleverly directed film that never lets up. There is a subplot about public knowledge about private military projects and one about the experimentation on animals, but for the most part, PROJECT SILENCE is just a straight up and wildly ludicrous romp of a disaster film.