The Quiet (2005)

The Quiet is a 2005 American psychological thriller film directed by Jamie Babbit, written by Abdi Nazemian and Micah Schraft, and starring Elisha Cuthbert, Camilla Belle, Martin Donovan, and Edie Falco. It focuses on a deaf-mute teenage orphan who is sent to live with her godparents. She soon becomes a sounding board for the family members, who confess their darkest secrets to her, including the father's ongoing sexual abuse of his daughter.

The second feature film by Babbit after the 1999 comedy But I'm a Cheerleader, The Quiet was shot in Austin, Texas in 2004, the first film by the University of Texas's Burnt Orange production company. Cuthbert served as an associate producer of the film. Its soundtrack features songs by Low, Cat Power, Le Tigre, and numerous Beethoven piano sonatas. The film premiered at the 2005 Toronto International Film Festival before being acquired by Destination Films, which re-edited the film drastically and added voiceover narration before releasing it in the United States theatrically through Sony Pictures Classics in August 2006.

The film was a box-office flop, but it found bigger commercial success in DVD markets. Many critics at the time of its release dismissed it as sleazy, exploitative, and difficult to watch, with several noting that it was too serious to be satire, yet too campy to be taken seriously. In the years since its release, the film has been analyzed by writers and critics as an example of a modern suburban gothic horror film.