SOUND OF VIOLENCE channels trauma artistic inspiration [review]

Sound of Violence is a film infused with big ideas. The feature debut from writer-director Alex Noyer focuses on a young woman (Jasmin Savoy Brown of The Leftovers and the upcoming Scream reboot) who develops synesthesia following a violent childhood incident. Blessed/cursed with the ability to be inspired through acts of violence, she begins seeking out extreme encounters in order to channel the pain of others into her music (and you thought Trent Reznor recording in the Manson murders house was intense).

Alexis (Kamia Benge) is a young girl who has lost her hearing. After walking in on her PTSD-addled father brutally murdering the rest of her family, Alexis violently strikes out at him, which leads to her first bout of synesthesia (and also restores her hearing). The actual act of violence unleashes an intoxicating multi-sensory feeling of swirling colours and sounds for Alexis, a desire that she strives to suppress as she gets older.

Smash cut to nearly two decades later, and Alexis (played as an adult by Jasmin Savoy Brown) is a music student trying to develop her own style. Her one sanctuary is her best friend Marie (Banshee‘s Lili Simmons) who she may be falling in love with. That relationship gets further twisted when Marie begins dating Duke (played by Mick Jagger’s son James), which pushes Alexis further into her own world. While dealing with her relationship issues, Alexis begins torturing and killing people on the fringes of society in order to capture their sounds of agony to incorporate into her increasingly abrasive music (as one does).

Sound of Violence throws a number of ideas at the wall, and while they may not all stick, it makes for an extremely unconventional and surprising horror debut. Alexis is clearly addicted to the feelings of synesthesia she experiences from the pain of others, something she believes she requires to fuel her creativity. Given that her first experience of synesthesia is tied to her childhood trauma, there’s an underlying notion of “hurt people hurt people” at play, but Noyer seems more interested in the way artists can feed off the pain of others for their own creative pursuits. It’s a motif seen in recent horror films like The Stylist and Bloodthirsty, and one that seems tailor-made for these times where the aggressive and violent behaviour of some established artists is finally being brought to light.

While some may take issue with the film’s treatment of trauma, Sound of Violence definitely delivers on the visceral front. The film features some of the most unique kill scenes in recent memory, and Brown delivers a powerful central performance as a young woman struggling to balance her violent addiction with her emotional issues and creative impulses.

Noyer stages these elaborate torture sequences like audio-visual Rube Goldberg devices, and while the film never verges too far into torture porn territory, the Saw franchise should be taking notes from these intricately violent setups. Despite the film’s young cast, this is far from the PG-rated YA slasher it appears to be — Sound of Violence more than lives up to its title once Alexis starts ratcheting up the kill count.

With a surprising central premise and some memorably bloody sequences, Sound of Violence is a strong feature debut from Noyer and positions him as an exciting new voice in the genre. You’ll never look at your favourite noise artists the same way again.

Sound of Violence arrives on video-on-demand on May 21, 2021