“When the great sorceress Kae is captured by a mysterious enemy, her young followers devise a plan to rescue her.”

Tower of Silence is a film about wizards, zombies (Sort of), bad accents and even worse effects. In a time when zombie films are a dime a dozen, you have to stand out as something special in order to not get lost in the crowd. If you want great examples of this, just look at Anna and the Apocalypse and Little Monsters. Unfortunately, the Tower of Silence stands out for all the wrong reasons.

The story follows Denzikel (Brandon Tyler Harris) as a young paladin on a mission. While also following Kae (Jenny Sterlin) as she is held captive by the enemy and her two students, Rahim (Brandon Gill) and Arcadia (Taylor Rose) try to rescue her. As the bloated run time continues, talk of great evil, uncontrollable magic and whatever clichéd fantasy plot you can think of are brought into the fold.

The acting itself isn’t inherently bad, but the script doesn’t do the cast any favors. It seems a lot of the direction was improvised. Some characters try to speak in ways that someone might think someone from medieval times might talk, while others put no effort into the dialog and just recite their lines. As the lead, Brandon Harris should have been able to shoulder a good amount of the film but he was wooden and rather unlikable. The supporting cast was just as out of place.

From the very beginning, you can tell what kind of movie you’re in for. From the Party City quality costumes to the questionable fights, this is not a high-end production. While movies are able to either be great on a shoestring budget or be entertaining because of how awful it is, this doesn’t fall into either camp.

One shining spot in this whole thing is the sound design and mixing. It might seem like odd praise, but we have all watched movies where the sound seems to fluctuate. In Tower of Silence though, at no point did the volume seem too high or too low. The dialog was crisp and easy to hear, while the soundtrack was not overpowering.

Tower of Silence isn’t a good film, simple as that. It’s clear that this was a first feature-length production for a lot involved and you can see the hard work that went into it. But in a market oversaturated with zombies, you need more than great sound design and elbow grease to make a good impression. In the end, Tower of Silence comes off as an old, made-for-TV, movie that should have stayed silent.