There’s Something in the Silence is the kind of horror short that will yank your shorts down. Castro achieves maximum scares with almost no special effects, the same way Robert Wise rocked it with The Haunting. All the frights throughout the short film are engineered with camerawork and sound. The excellent sound design, by Mike J Lewis, of the eerie voices and footsteps, is horrifying. Castro’s wicked awesome cinematography matches the sound with clever angles and visual compositions. There is a fantastic fright wig moment that begins when Erin hears nothing when putting in the hearing aids. Then the camera pans over to the side abruptly once the voices start. It is an excellent effect. The result was goosebumps on my arms not once, not twice, but three times during the film’s seven-minute running time. Castro builds the mood perfectly with natural lighting during the video call, then gets more stylized as the horror show ramps up. This sense of normalcy is crucial to establish as it can then ripple and be torn apart by the cascading dread. Camp’s amazing performance heightens the fear as she projects being completely terrified. There’s Something in the Silence is an expertly crafted horror short by a filmmaker with potent instincts. Go watch it, just be prepared to jump out of your skin.
