Soft & Quiet is a 2022 American horror thriller written and directed by Beth de Araújo in her directorial debut. It stars Stefanie Estes as Emily, an elementary school teacher who moonlights as the leader of a female Neo-Nazi group named the Daughters of Aryan Unity. It also stars Olivia Luccardi as Leslie, a young woman and ex-con helping Kim (Dana Millican) in her store.
The Daughters of Aryan Unity hold meetings to discuss and vent their grievances over perceptions of being side-lined and exploited by immigrants and people of color in what they believe to be an enabling system. Later in the film, a chance encounter with a young Asian woman and her sister in Kim's store leads to a series of tragic events culminating in a death the women take upon themselves to cover up.
Soft & Quiet contains examples of:
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Emily and, to a lesser extent, Kim. Aside from the neo-nazism, Emily is eager to stage a home invasion at the house of her brother's rape victim and her sister at Leslie's suggestion while verbally putting down her husband for not wanting to follow through with it.
- Blonde, Brunette, Redhead: Of the conspirators, Marjorie and Leslie are both brunette (though Marjorie's hair also seems to be dyed deep purple); Emily is blonde and is regarded as beautiful by the whole group; Kim is redheaded.
- Butt-Monkey: Marjorie. Aside from getting passed over for promotion in her job and alluding to a poverty-stricken background when she mentions that her family could never afford a piano, she's blatantly the least respected member of the group, at least to Emily and Kim. First, she's called out by Emily for "Talking like an ape," just for saying "I'm game." Then Emily talks about setting her up with a gas station attendant who she finds unattractive. Then she's complimented for having "great tits" by Emily. Later, during the home invasion, she's chewed out by Kim for "dressing like a whore" (Though, to Kim's credit, she was under a great amount of stress.) Finally, she has the most unflattering breakdown of the women after Lily's death. where she turns into a hyperventilating, sobbing, barely functional mess.
- Deadly Prank: How the home invasion ends after Anne and Lily come back. Anne and Lily are tied to chairs before Lily is force fed and suffers an allergic reaction before dying.
- Desires Prison Life: Leslie says that she misses prison and comes to the Aryan meeting because she yearns for the structure.
- Didn't Think This Through: The entire home invasion and subsequent "prank". The women decide to break into Lily and Anne's home just moments after their altercation in Kim's store. They don't wear gloves or cover their faces, and did not consider the possibility that Lily and Anne could show up at any moment. After they do, they decide the best thing to do is to scare them into keeping their mouths shut and getting out of town before cleaning up the house to wipe away any trace of their presence. Then they accidentally kill Lily after force feeding her peanuts. Leading them to kill Anne and cleaning up the crime scene before disposing of their bodies. Then it turns out Anne was alive the whole time because Leslie thought a pillow over her face for a few seconds was enough.
- The Ditz: None of the women are particularly bright, but Marjorie wins the gold medal when she idiotically records the assault against Lily and Anne with Anne's phone. Leading to Emily ripping the phone out of her hands and calling her out on doing something so stupid.
- Double Standard: Rape, Female on Female: Discussed. Leslie rapes Anne with a carrot because nobody will suspect a woman if there's a sign of rape.
- Female Misogynist: All of the women except maybe Marjorie and Leslie show aggressively misogynistic tendencies, especially towards women of color and/or "fat" women.
- Green-Eyed Monster: Marjorie's reason for showing up at the Daughters of Aryan Unity meeting. She complains about being passed over for a promotion while a Colombian girl gets it who started working in the same job slightly less longer than her. Then she complains about non-whites and immigrants benefiting more from her homeland than she is.
- Henpecked Husband: Craig. Emily browbeats him into assisting her, Leslie, Marjorie, and Kim in their home invasion by questioning his manhood after running into Anne and Lily. After Anne and Lily unexpectedly return home and he helps in tying up the girls, he stands up to Emily and headbutts her before storming out of the house before the situation escalated any further.
- Hysterical Woman: Emily, Kim, and Marjorie become this after Lily's death. Though Emily and Kim manage to keep themselves composed enough to clean up the scene of the crime. Marjorie, however, is so distraught, that she's barely able to assist and has to be repeatedly comforted by Emily just to be able to barely keep herself together.
- Lady Macbeth: Emily talks Craig into participating in her stupid felony crime of burgling Lily and Anne by threatening that she'll think of him as a "fucking faggot" if he doesn't.
- The Matchmaker: Emily talks about setting up Leslie and Marjorie with guys she knows even after just meeting them.
- Noodle Incident: Lily's rape. Which was, apparently, committed by Emily's brother. The fact that he's in prison when rape charges are so generally low, implies that there's definitely a good reason for him to be there.
- The Oner: The whole movie is filmed in one take.
- Paper Tiger: The women talk tough and have little qualms with assaulting Lily and Anne, but after Lily dies from an allergic reaction, they fall apart quickly and turn into panicking, sobbing messes. Especially Marjorie who has several panic attacks throughout the ordeal and has to be consoled by Emily to keep herself together. Leslie is the exception since she has experience in prison and seems to be The Sociopath.
- The One Guy: Aside from the priest who stops the meeting in a couple of lines, Craig, Emily's husband, is the only major male character.
- Only Sane Man: Craig. Who's very much aware of how bad an idea breaking into Lily and Anne's house without even planning it first is. But Emily successfully nags him to go along with it anyway, but only after he instructs the women to leave their phones behind in Kim's store so they can't be traced.
- Politically Incorrect Villain: All the members of the Daughters of Aryan Unity are racist and xenophobic to varying degrees. Their degree of villainy also varies though Leslie stands out as the worst of the bunch for being the only member who has been in prison and the most active participant in the Deadly Prank and its aftermath.
- Rape as Drama: The source of the conflict between Lily and Emily is Lily getting raped by Emily's brother. Though Emily denies this happened. After Lily dies from the allergic reaction to the peanuts the women force feed her, Leslie rapes Anne with a carrot because "No one's ever gonna suspect women if they're raped."
- Real Time: The film unfolds over an hour and a half, like the movie itself, and is filmed in one take.
- Skewed Priorities: Leslie brings up her online store for vintage clothes by telling a visibly distraught Emily that she can model her clothes for her. This is after Lily died and Leslie just raped Anne with a carrot moments prior.
- The Sociopath: Leslie. Not only does she deny the epi-pen that could have saved Lily's life. She also comes up with the idea to rape Anne before personally "murdering" her with a pillow.
- Stupid Crooks: The women are all monumentally stupid about the burglary. Craig needs to instruct them to leave their phones behind and not to play blaring music on their way to committing it. He also points out how much basic information they're lacking about Anne and Lily, asking if they have pets and multiple entrances (which they don't know).
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: All over the place, but in particular the fact that the whole "prank" gets so out of control so quickly as well as the fact that trying to smother someone to death with a pillow is actually very difficult to pull off.
- They Look Just Like Everyone Else!: A fanatically racist white power group is populated with exceedingly normal-looking women in yoga pants and cardigans.
- Vorpal Pillow: How the gang attempts to silence Anne. Unfortunately for them (and "fortunately" for Anne), it's a lot harder to smother someone to death than the movies make it seem, and ultimately Anne is shown to have survived the whole ordeal, putting the gang's future in serious doubt.
- Villain in a White Suit: Emily wears a white shirt, white trousers, and a white blazer.
- Wham Shot: Emily unwraps the pie and reveals a Nazi sigil carved on it. Until then, the Nazi sympathies are foreshadowed, but not made clear.
