REVIEW: ‘Noise’ Struggles To Be Heard

A large story house stands amidst beautiful multi-textural tall trees, wistful shrubbery, and lush greenery. A man-made pond is in line sight from the house. This is Matthias’ (Ward Kerremans) childhood home that he and Liv (Sallie Harmsen) move into with their newborn son Julius. Directed by Steffen Geypens and written by Geypens, Robin Kerremans, and Hasse Steenssens, Netflix’s Noise is a Belgian thriller film that starts off promising but slowly submerges in its direction.

Matthias is a successful social media influencer with enough followers to gain sponsorship to continually support his family. While settling into their new home, Matthias becomes invested in a mystery surrounding his father Pol’s (Johan Leysen) old factory. Motivated by his followers’ interest more than his father’s request to investigate the accidents, Matthias quickly spirals toward a mental breakdown.

Noise sets up the audience with detailed cinematography right from the start. A woman walks towards the estate pond with the building in the background. Scenes of her drowning snap back and forth to her moments before being fully underwater. The closeup frames of her face parallel and foreshadow her death with her slightly reddened eyes and blueish complexion. Skipping forward to a 360-degree shot is Matthias in the same walking path with the estate in the background as the for-mentioned woman. A story begins to form and a correlation is signaled to the audience. Cinematic moments like these are what call attention and hold the film afloat when the story begins to lose air.

It begins with a familiar setup to a thriller and makes sure to highlight those familiar notes to the audience. The revisit to a home with a previous dark history. A goat head decor above the basement’s entryway with a freezer. A baby that doesn’t stop crying and a grandmother’s old yellow dress. Interestingly, noted pieces like these don’t hold significant weight and instead act as the lure to reel us in. If anything, some are subdued roles and play into the larger focus of the film: Matthias’ mental state that calls back to his family history. 

Triggered by certain noises and their frequencies, Ward Kerremans does a good job of displaying a lack of empathy and proper emotional cues as our newly fathered Matthias. Making his character tough to like, he is often prioritizing social media and curates content. In doing so, he ignores Julius’ cries or utilizes him as a prop. Having our protagonists as an influencer show a darker side the audience wouldn’t be unfamiliar with. High follower count or not, it shows how consumed we can become when handling social media. Like the need to document and share everything or how oddly validated we can feel with views or responses to posts. It holds itself there and doesn’t move further in exploring that concept.

Eventually, we see a strained relationship forming between Matthias and Liv from his neglect. While Liv is often shown away from the house trying to gain footing in her new catering business, she is seemingly present in Julius’ life. She even vocalizes interest in the relationship between Matthias and his father, Pol. Together the three help awkwardly pace the story along in shaping the true tale of this thriller. What begins as a mystery becomes a psychological analysis of Matthias.

By the halfway point, I found myself waiting and wondering when something—anything—was going to drop that sticks. Eventually, it slowly unravels. Really slowly. While the direction the story takes is admirable, it already started to lose me as Matthias drew closer to the truth behind what happened at the factory. Matthias’ sleep deprivation compounded with his declining mental state felt too abrupt and lacked proper development. While flailing in execution, it’s clever in its cinematic nods and film direction to hint at what lingers underneath for Matthias. Transitioning scenes are done well and blend effortlessly, making for a pleasant visual experience.

Noise tries to approach the thriller genre with its own sense of twists and turns. The twist and turns just might be challenging for the audience to keep on the path. Through its splintered storytelling, it felt unfulfilled and lacking by the end of its hour and twenty-nine minutes runtime. While captivating in its cinematography, Noise struggles to be heard properly in its writing.

Noise is streaming now on Netflix.