Noise (2023) Netflix Review: Stream It or Skip It?

Belgium’s new feature movie, Noise, which is now streaming on Netflix, might just be one of the more underrated movies of this year, but the jury is still out. As the title suggests, Noise revolves around the life of a social media influencer who is very easily triggered by loud or unnatural noises, and that trigger is increased tenfold after the birth of his newborn son.

Of course, there is a lot more to Noise than an influencer being triggered, and we will explore more of that in this review, where at the end, we will give our final verdict on whether we believe you should stream Noise, or skip it.

If you are someone who is easily triggered by their surroundings, you might sympathize a little with the main character of Noise, Matthias.

If you are expecting a face-paced thriller, then Noise might not be the movie that you’re looking for, because this movie is more of a slow burn with mystery, drama, and a smidge of horror, or at least that’s our take on Noise. We will delve into this further in our review, so make sure you stick around until the very end.

Social Media Influencer In the Wild Gone Wrong

Matthias, who is the main character of Noise, moves to his father’s old home in a small town, along with his wife Liv, and their son Julius. Matthias is a social media influencer, and from the very beginning, it has been established that he is one of those influencers who like to share every last detail of his life with his followers.

Matthias isn’t the most likable character in Noise, but it is evident that he is struggling, and moving into the new house, away from the city, isn’t making things better for him either. Loud noises are incredibly overwhelming for Matthias and often make him snap, so it isn’t helpful that Julius cries almost all the time, especially at night, while Liv sleeps away peacefully.

Not too far away, Matthias’ father, Pol, lives in a retirement home and has a habit of wandering away. One day, when Pol and Matthias are walking back to the retirement home, Pol points towards a factory, being incredibly ominous about it, and it soon becomes the focus of Noise and Matthias.

Pol isn’t in the right state of mind to be able to talk about the horrors that escalated in the factory years ago, which scarred the entire town. Matthias makes it his goal to figure out what has happened there, almost like he was compelled to do this for his father.

Liv ventures out into town and notices that not everyone is very friendly toward her or too coherent when Pol is mentioned, so there is definitely a lot of mystery and questions that the viewers have in the first half of the movie.

Slowly and steadily, the more Matthias starts learning about the factory and everything that happened, he begins to slowly lose his mind and the noises only make things worse for him.

Noise is an incredibly dark movie, and it had us worried for the welfare of Julius and Liv because Matthias was far from sane. Despite everything going wrong, Matthias made sure that he kept his followers informed about the factory and everything that happened, which might not be the smartest thing to do, but it doesn’t really play into the narrative of Noise.

We won’t spoil the ending of Noise for you, but make sure you are prepared for a slow burn with an ending that you might not want or expect. There’s a lot constantly happening in Noise, and there are very few characters in this movie, which ultimately works in its favor.

Our favorite character in Noise is Liv because she is also the most likable character in this movie. She is a mother, she has her own catering business, and despite Matthias’ behavior, she is there for him, time and again.

The only thing we didn’t like about Liv was her being a slightly absent mother, which put more pressure on Matthias, probably making his condition worse. All characters in Noise were flawed but that’s what kept the movie interesting.

The premise of Noise originally had our expectations high because we were expecting it to all unfold in the end, but that’s not really what happened. Noise was a great attempt at dark mystery, but the second half didn’t hold up as well as it should have.

Noise has been directed by Steffen Geypens, and this is only his second feature movie, the first being a horror fantasy. So for a second movie, we do believe he has done a brilliant job in directing the movie, but undoubtedly, it could have been a lot better, because it didn’t live up to its potential. However, we recommend watching Noise for more than a few reasons.

This movie stays true to its title, Noise, which plays a very important role throughout the 90-minute run time. Noise is also a lot darker than we expected, which will be a welcome surprise to all viewers who enjoy watching movies of this particular genre.

The characters, the setting, and the entire vibe of Noise are incredibly impressive, and the only place it lacks is the story, which could have been fixed by taking it up a notch. Noise probably won’t be nominated for any awards or accolades, but it definitely deserves a watch.

There is one warning though, if loud noises or unusual noises bother you, then we’d recommend watching Noise at a low volume, especially if you have sharp ears.

Conclusion

Noise was a unique movie and experience with a smidge of horror because we had a little jump scare at least twice during the entire movie.

If you have already watched Noise, do let us know in the comments section what you thought about the movie, and if you haven’t watched Noise yet, we hope this review has prompted you to do so!