Shane Van Dyke

News, Reviews & Features
  • Review: The Silence echoes better films, but you'll watch it anyway

    Movie Review | Luke Whiston | 29th April 2019

    I feel like I've decoded the Voynich manuscript. Something seemed off about The Silence but for the longest time I couldn't put my finger on it. It's a noticeably cheap-looking film - a continuation of the worrying Netflix trend of picking things up that are, shall we say, 'Poundland versions of proper films' - but has a decent enough cast. The intrigue deepened. So I looked it up and suddenly everything fell into place: it was written by Shane and Carey Van Dyke of the Van Dyke dynasty, purveyors of the infamously terrible Asylum 'mockbusters' which were funny for five minutes in 2006. I don't know exactly how these things work with a dozen production companies and distributors and whatnot, but I do know what Netflix have done here is they've rebadged a film that was probably destined for The SyFy Channel. And as everyone knows you can't polish a turd. Believe me I've tried, it goes everywhere.

  • Today I learned: Oren Peli chooses his collaborators poorly

    Movie News | Luke | 30th June 2012

    Here's an odd piece of trivia about recently released post-meltdown horror Chernobyl Diaries which, once you know it, feels more like a dirty secret. I'll try to explain. Not in this bit though, there's nowhere near enough room.