Luca Tassone’s short ‘Black Silence’ proves once again that most of the bad things happen when the lights are out. A couple goes through a difficult crisis, and nothing seems to be helping. The woman needs some time to think about what there is to do in such a situation, and she leaves the house trying to do what she has to do. Her great escape culminates in something that looks like a rushed decision that can only make matters worse. When she comes back, the man is waiting. The confrontation is intense, and the suspense is rising. The night is the mother of counsel, but only if you tread lightly because the darkness is a perfect place for the evil to hide.

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Two things caught our attention in ‘Black Silence’. First is the performance of Anna Bernardi as the main character. She portrays a woman who almost hits rock bottom and tries to find a way to cope with the whole mess she is in. The woman knows that things are broken, and there is almost no chance of repairing them, and she goes with the flow, finding a way to make her decision worth it. Her struggle is so mighty we can feel it through the screen.

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The second thing is the “real" main character, the darkness that prevails from the first scene and remains omnipresent until the end. Choosing to have a prevalent dark space in each scene, Tassone introduced a permanent surprise element that feels like it’s about to happen at all times. The viewer has no clue what happens in the shadows, but at any moment, a jump scare situation can occur. There is nothing absolute in the dark, and Tassone assures us of this in his film. Using the darkness as a critical factor, the director reimagines the theatre curtain, as the curtain is the place where the actor prepares the next move, and it is always a surprise when the move is delivered to the audience. This surprise element is the winning card the director played in ‘Black Silence’, the reason why it proves to work incredibly well.

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Written by Vlad A.G