Party planning puts people in a perilous predicament propelling accomplices to surreptitiously propose a misappropriated premeditated conspiratorial plot prompting an approximation of previous comparative motion picture synopses.

Quiet Hours is a short film slasher about a group of twenty-somethings who gather for a birthday celebration. When the worst happens, they must keep a dark secret among themselves.

Written and directed by Ryan Rox, I like how he directs the film using different camera angles, zooms, and close-ups to make it visually interesting. On the other hand, the script isn’t the greatest. The premise is derivative of I Know What You Did Last Summer. The dialogue feels so forced and it’s not natural. People don’t talk like that. Most characters make inexplicable decisions, too. Perhaps a few more drafts of the script could have been done to punch up the story and dialogue.

Quiet Hours has social commentary about depression, loss, guilt, and dependency on drugs and alcohol. While I applaud films with a message, the script meanders leaving things unresolved. It also relies on false jump scares, which is a personal pet peeve. It does have good practical effects as far as the gore is concerned, though.

Ryan Rox plays Dominic, the main protagonist. His group of friends includes Nick Check as Drew, Jessica N. Jimenez as Riley, and Cabe Tejeda as Ricky. Nora Brown is Mrs. Priestly, a mother and psychotherapist. The acting isn’t particularly good all around. The emotions trying to be conveyed feel flat and the way the dialogue is delivered feels the same. At other times it feels like the cast is overacting, making the performances inconsistent. There’s no chemistry between these people either. Perhaps if they rehearsed more they could at least make the conversations seem more natural.

I like the score by Apollo Moon. It’s a solid hip-hop score that adds style to the film. Honestly, it’s the most entertaining part of it all.

Overall, the majority of the issues stem from it’s incongruous writing and acting. The directing is good but the material needed more substance to it to have emotional weight. The glaring plot holes are frustrating because a line or two of dialogue is all that’s needed to explain things more. For a short film, why not put more finality in your climax? The half-hour runtime felt longer than it actually is because not engaging or enjoyable to watch. I love slashers but I wouldn’t recommend seeing Quiet Hours. And remember, keeping quiet is required when it comes to killer secrets.

4 out of 10