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The party on Block Island gathers the attention of four boarding school friends who are completely derailed by emotions and hormones. They plan on attending the party on a boat but miss it, unfortunately. To hail a ride, they meet a strange but charming guy at a local bar, known as Bobby. He offers them a ride to the island for a partially unreasonable fee, and one of his friends, Nicky, pays him. The school friends meet Bobby at the dock, but a mysterious man emerges from the captain’s cabin, unveiling himself as Stone. He’s very hard to miss, as he looks and carries himself quite like Robert Shaw from Jaws. Immediately, he begins barking orders to his crew in a firm and tough manner. On the other side is an overprotective boy named Jake, who shows no interest in going on the boat ride, but after some serious convincing from his girlfriend Ashley, he puts his heart on his sleeve and gives in to the jellyfish plan.
The teens figure out quite quickly that Block Island is not their planned destination. Bobby and Stone have other things in mind for them, none of which involve bringing them to solid ground.
I don’t totally disagree with people who say that the failure of a movie can only be attributed to one person. Personally, I would much rather dissect the film and understand what went wrong rather than blame everything on unimportant things. That said, Noah Gaynor does not aid the case at all in this film. Typically in movies of this nature, it is the supporting roles that you wish would be done away with, but in Dead Sound, our lead (or rather what the film wants our lead to be) is the only casualty that I was hoping for throughout the movie. Some of the first character interactions between Jake and other characters at the start of the film are genuinely cringe-inducing to watch. The guy is arguing with his girlfriend in the most unconvincing way which is so strange, it resembles the opening of a horrible adult film. Things like this are exactly what clouded my judgment about the movie. As I explained previously, the character of Jake is, for lack of a better term, a cowardly buzzkill who has to sit through the parts of the film that he does not enjoy, but the small positive change he goes through at the end of the movie does not feel rewarding at all.
His character is sad that his girlfriend doesn’t even like him anymore, and the audience is left clueless as to what drives him to do something brave. Maybe I did not give Noah Gaynor the benefit of the doubt, but unlike most people, I do not think he is a bad actor. Not particularly good either. Still, almost everyone agrees that his performance is robbed from him. No wonder so many people believed that writers Jon Adler and Todd Weihmann crafted a decent thriller. It just so happens that they misfired big with this character. He certainly does not ruin the movie, but his character does act as a deterrent to some level of enjoyment.
While claiming that the character was very poor, I do want to point out that Dead Sound did bring about some interesting characters in performance. Sophie Faulkenberry and Matthew Gumley are the winners. Believe me, Nicky may look annoying but that is until he starts to truly breathe comedy into the movie. He is genuinely funny. Truly surprising was how powerful his loyalty and courage proved to be. Purely putting, some actors are just born with unparalleled charm and this applies to Gumley. That’s why I believe Gumley has such a bright future ahead of him.
The character of Ashley is my favorite of the bunch since she appears to be the most complex. I think she should have been the main character since her story around addiction is far more engrossing than Jake’s struggle with him being dull. Part of the reason they are going on the trip is to try and help Ashley prepare mentally. She recently completed rehab and is eager to be around those that love her the most. She has to relive traumatic experiences throughout the film and is made to confront some really difficult fight or flight moments and, of course, there are certain aspects I will not disclose which I should have. She does not even have an arc but I admire her more than everyone else in the film. Faulkenberry is known for proving herself to handle herself well as an actress and, while she is an eye pleasing actress, she is much more than just an attractive face. Everyone else in the film actually performs to a satisfactory standard. They do their part as it was written, but the rest of the cast did not make any memorable impressions on me.
When it comes to dead sound, I have it marked as quite a decent thriller. The plot might as well have come straight from a Mad Libs page, but I don’t think a low-budget film like this requires or would benefit from a more sophisticated plot woven into it. The moment Bobby and Stone start to turn the tables and begin their terrorist-style take on the scenario is when the film gets super tense. On a couple of occasions, I found myself suspending the movie by forming a fist out of my hand. The Situation that is presented to these teens is, in fact, true, even if only a little. I couldn’t find much out there regarding the actual case but even so, a lot of the events in the film are really plausible. Nothing felt too far-fetched or unbelievable.
Dead Sound is an enjoyable film, even if at some point in time I came across it on television, mid-movie, I stayed to watch until the end. It is a movie best suited for lazy afternoons, spent with your pets or your significant other. It is one of those films that is funny and entertaining if you are in the right frame of mind. It will not be one of those films that I will remember, but it did manage to entertain me and surprise me to an extent. What I thought to be a boring unexciting movie to start with, turned out to be an effective thriller. Films like these have a much better setup. Check out Dead Calm (1989) when you get the chance. While I do think that the film Dead Sound is quite flawed, I don’t see it as essential cinema that has to be watched immediately. But rather, there are far worse ways to spend 82 minutes.
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