Laura Saxon | Through the Shattered Lens

Project Skyquake, the latest film from director József Gallai, opens with a voice in the darkness. The voice belongs to Andrew Derrickson (Simon Bramford), the stepfather of a student journalist named Cassie. Andrew explains that Cassie and her friend Margot have been missing for a while. They are actually one of the many people who disappeared all in the same day, an event that changed the world.

As he speaks, we see scenes of empty roads, abandoned buildings, and ominous forests and we can’t help but notice that there does not seem to be many people around. We know that something big has happened but we don’t know what yet. However, when looking at these desolate images, it’s hard not to think about what the real world has gone through over the past two years. Due to the pandemic and lockdowns, many people did literally seem to disappear. They retreated into their homes and they locked their doors and some have yet to emerge. In the early days of the Pandemic, images of empty streets and deserted buildings were a regular feature on the news and online. Some news sources even took to referring to the pre-COVID days as being the “before time,” as if the expectation was that the world would just have to accept the new normal of a empty streets and missing faces. Project Skyquake, I should make clear, is not directly a COVID film but it is a film that resonates because of what most of humanity has just been through (and what many people are currently still experiencing). At a time when many are trying to memoryhole what it was like and pretend as if it really wasn’t as bad as all that, Project Skyquake is a film that reminds us of exactly what it felt like to feel as if one was witnessing the end of the world.

We watch footage of the days leading up to the disappearance of Cassie (Laura Ellen Wilson) and her friend Margot (Laura Saxon). Cassie is fascinated by “skyquakes,” a very real phenomena in which people have reported hearing explosions and trumpets coming from the sky. As Cassie explains it, some people think that the skyquakes are UFO-realted. Some blame the government. Some say it’s a natural occurrence with a scientific explanation. Others view the skyquakes as being the sound of heavenly trumpets announcing the start of the rapture and the end of the world. Cassie explains that the skyquakes could be holes in time and we are hearing the sounds of the future.

After receiving a video from Hank (Tom Sizemore), another skyquake researcher, Cassie and Margot drive out to a location where skyquakes have frequently been reported. They’re hoping to capture the phenomena on film. Instead, they find themselves driving further and further into what appears to be a deserted forest. Of course, the forest isn’t as deserted as it may appear and Cassie and Margot soon discover the truth about the skyquakes….

Project Skyquake is an enjoyably creepy found footage film. The film makes good use of its atmospheric locations, with the forest and the things found within growing significantly more threatening with each passing moment. (The shots of the abandoned buildings and the unwelcoming wilderness reminded me a bit of Jean Rollin’s The Night of the Hunted, with its portrayal of semi-deserted and dystopian Paris.) The film does a good job of capturing the frightening and powerless feeling of being lost, both physically and mentally. Laura Ellen Wilson and Laura Saxon are both immediately sympathetic as Cassie and Margot and, even more importantly, they’re believable as lifelong friends. The viewer really does care about what is going to happen to them.

The film also does a good job of portraying the underground network of paranormal investigators and hobbyists who are convinced that there is more to the world than what can be easily seen. Along with Tom Sizemore’s Hank. we also hear from Scott Carmichael (Robert LaSardo), an expert on the phenomena, and a Professor Stokkebø (Jon Vangdal Aamaas). They are people who come from different parts of the world and different backgrounds but what they all share in common is a belief that there is more out there than we know or have been told about.

Project Skyquake is a short but effective film about a real-world phenomena. It’ll make you listen to the sky a little more carefully then next time you’re standing underneath it.

A man named Will (Gabor Varga) has a new job. He spends his days in the wilderness, living in a small cabin and essentially keeping an eye out for anyone who might need help or who might be doing something that they shouldn’t be doing. His only company is his supervisor, June (Laura Saxon). He never meets June. He just hears her voice as he spends his days exploring the forest. Her voice sounds familiar to him, like someone from his recent past,

Will is a man hiding from the traumas of that past. His wife died in a tragic accident. His daughter is currently being raised by her grandfather (Larry Hankin). Will has next to no contact with her. He says it’s better that way. June tells him that almost everyone who accepts a job in the forest is trying to avoid something or escape some sort of tragedy. The forest is where people go to disappear.

June also explains that strange things are hidden in the forest,. Will comes across creepy and deserted buildings. He finds a backpack and makes a shocking discovery when he searches it. Some nights, he thinks that he might see a figure in the distance trying to give him some sort of coded message.

The latest film from director Joszef Gallai, I Hear The Trees Whispering is full of atmosphere. The majority of the film is shot from Will’s point of view. Indeed, we never see Will’s face. Instead, we hear his voice and occasionally, we see his hands while he’s searching for something. It’s a technique that puts us directly into Will’s mind. Just as he’s lost in the wilderness, so are we. Just as he’s hearing strange noises and trying to see where they’re coming from, so are we. It’s a technique the allows the film to capture the forest in all of it ominous beauty. One can see why Will would want to escape to the forest while also understanding how the isolation could drive someone to the point of madness. However, there’s another reason why the majority of the film is shot from WIll’s point of view, one that I won’t spoil beyond to say that it all pays off in an unexpected but effective twist during the film’s third act.

With a 78-minute running time, I Hear The Trees Whispering moves at a deliberate pace, Once again, it’s a film that’s far more concerned with setting the proper atmosphere and developing the characters of Will and June than with tossing in any cheap jump scares. The audience’s fear and anxiety comes from the fact that it’s impossible to watch the film without imagining how you would react if you found yourself in the same situation. Would you have the courage to leave the cabin and see where the noises were coming from? I probably wouldn’t but Will doesn’t really have a choice. He’s as much a prisoner of fate as he is a prisoner of his tragic past. Just as Jack Torrance was always meant to be the caretaker of the Overlook Hotel, Will was always meant to search the forest in search of answers.

As I mentioned earlier, there’s a big twist in the third act, one that I guarantee will take you by surprise and which will force you to reconsider everything that you’ve previously seen. That’s what a good twist does!

I Hear The Trees Whispering is an effectively atmospheric thriller, one that will leave you thinking long after the end credits have rolled.