Larry Pearce is a man with excellent hearing: he notices his son's strange heartbeat, but not in time to treat him and thus avoid a sad fate.
Caught up in guilt, grief, and non-acceptance of his son's death, he turns this ability into a pure obsessive disorder and therefore, into a psychiatric distress that even makes him paranoid and close to total insanity...
Director Brad Anderson in his film Session 9 had already shown a strong interest in psychology and psychiatry, emphasizing the point of contact between rationality and emotionality, accompanying it with a paranormal reading to make his product ambiguous and mysterious.
With this effort of his for the second Masters of horror series, he stays on the psychological plane, while leaving some elements of dubious interpretation, although the film shows itself to be decidedly more rational than it might seem.
The whole thing is excellently done, thanks in part to a superb performance by Chris Bauer as the main character.
The result is a main character who is an “auditory” alter ego of the protagonist of Perfume - A Killer's Story.
Larry Pearce denies reality, because it is hard to accept, in order to live in his own world: he wants to heal, but he does not know that only by abandoning his obsessions can he succeed, although the path is difficult.
But every drug, every noise, is addictive.
Very symbolic, and bloody, the ending.
Nice try.
Review by Zick
