For all the sleek and stylish elements that go into the modern slasher film, there’s a sense of authenticity and taste that just doesn’t exist in the way it did in the genre’s heyday. “Taste” isn’t something one would generally consider important in a slasher movie, but if you look at any of Tobe Hooper, Wes Craven or John Carpenter’s films, there is an inherent understanding of cinematic forms and structure; a conscious understanding of how horror and violence work when juxtaposed to traditional drama. The initial moments of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre include well-lit establishing shots — lots of open spaces and clear skies — and the film slowly keeps getting darker and more claustrophobic from scene to scene. However, Alex Noyer’s Sound of Violence doesn’t tonally or stylistically differentiate its drama from its horror, which makes the movie feel monotonous.

This is ironic when considering that Sound of Violence’s calling card is that it’s a slasher film about sound. Alexis Reeves (Jasmin Savoy Brown) is able to visualize sound, and can see sound waves in multi-colored patterns, usually associated with violence. As a result, her experiences and needs consistently become more intense. Alexis is an unassuming and pleasant music theory teacher, and her friendly personality belies someone who is deeply disturbed. Yet Brown simply isn’t convincing when portraying someone with deep trauma or pain hidden beneath a reserved surface. There’s a lackadaisical nature to her manners that makes the bouts of abhorrent violence — like torturing a homeless man and recording his screams — not only narratively preposterous but also tonally inconsistent with her character.

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Sound of Violence, like a lot of films in the slasher genre, aims at an underlying theme of “trauma” that is highlighted by Alexis’ strange need to find intense sounds for her sound mixes. This is established in a contrived opening scene, where she witnesses, as a young girl, her father suffering from PTSD and brutally killing her mother. What should be a thoroughly disturbing and affecting moment, one that should have ripples of resonance throughout the rest of the movie, is filmed in such a disjointed manner, with poor acting and ham-fisted dialogue, that it ruins its potential as a mood-setter. Whatever impactful trauma that was supposed to be borne of that moment never culminates.

Many TV series and movies provide subtextual commentaries about mental health issues and psychological trauma, but there needs to be an organic base that grows naturally with the central character. A film like Sound of Violence uses trauma as a justification for genre elements, as if a need to create an explanation is necessary in a narrative that’s clearly aimed towards camp. Trauma becomes a piece of the puzzle rather than a real element of a character’s development.

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Sound of Violence’s nonchalant depictions of violence, which occur with such obfuscation due to uncoordinated quick-cut editing and color filters, render it a fangless drama with un-engaging sequences of killing and torture. There’s no lasting fear or tension, and the film seems to have a misunderstanding of what makes slasher films so exciting and dramatically potent.