Silent House

Silent House is directed by Chris Kentis and written by Laura Lau. It stars Elizabeth Olsen, Adam Trese and Eric Sheffer Stevens. Music is by Nathan Larson and cinematography by Igor Martinovic. A remake of Uruguayan film, La casa muda (The Silent House), story has Olsen as Sarah, a young woman who finds herself locked in the abandoned family home she was helping her father and uncle to clear out before it is sold. Soon Sarah finds herself pursued by an unseen assailant and she struggles to make sense of what is festering in the house.

Forget the gimmick that comes with the film, that of the use of "real time" to give off the effect of one continuous take, it doesn't impact on how you ultimately will feel about the film either way. It comes down to if you can buy into another haunted house movie whilst accepting the outcome as being worth your time. Horror fans are notoriously hard to please, even when something original happens along, such as the recent The Cabin in the Woods, a good portion of the horror faithful will remain displeased. Silent House is what it is, a hugely efficient haunted house creeper that admirably builds suspense and then shows its twisty hand. If you want fresh and exciting, and I keep seeing people write that "such and such" didn't bring nothing new to the table whilst themselves not offering up exactly what could be brought to said table, then it's very unlikely Silent House will fill your horror hungry bellies.

Coming from the makers of Open Water, it's evident that Silent House wants to have realism on its side, it's stripped back for impact, with a less is more approach to its garnering of chills. With Olsen terrific, and she is, we are asked to put ourselves in that house and be in her shoes to feel the terror. Not everyone can do that, obviously, but being able to do that considerably makes Silent House a far better movie than its lowly internet ratings suggest it is. The scares are not over done, the music score is suitably sparse as claustrophobia reigns supreme, the use of natural light impressive and the camera glides about as an ethereal observer, technically it is a very effectively constructed haunted house picture. It's also refreshing to find the makers are able to use credible reasons for characters to be in and out of the house, this isn't about the dumb decision making so often rife in this sub-genre of horror over the years.

Sadly the third act is weak as the scares, tech attributes and atmosphere subside, we land in familiar territory and the big reveals, whilst thematically potent and never to be scoffed at, lack the desired impact and the film closes down more on a whimper instead of the terrified scream the rest of the film deserved. A shame, because for the most part this is a very good genre offering for those who have a bent for such spooky/home invasion doings. 7.5/10

This is a good film. People have complained heavily about the lack of character explanation, which I do realise is conventionally the basis to any decent story, BUT I feel this film is due credit for its unconventional approach in editing, filming and character placement.

I watch a lot of horrors, searching for anything that doesn't hit upon cliché after cliché and I thoroughly enjoyed this film. It wasn't a typical 'in your face' horror, but was tense, creepy and unpredictable until the twist. Despite not being completely original in overall plot, I can easily imagine its approach to film making leaving a legacy for future filmmakers.

The camera work was clever, the acting good and overall experience was enjoyable. It was a complete mind f*ck of a film until the twist. That's how I like my films. So thumbs up all round.

Definitely would recommend this to anyone that can appreciate the fact that a film can be scary without ridiculous amount of blood, gore and stereotypical characters.

Anyway, Enjoy fellow film lovers!

The Hollywood adaptation of the 2010 Uruguayan horror film La casa muda, Silent House is a shot-for-shot remake that even applies the same technical gimmick of the original in order to advertise itself as a film shot in one continuous take and while there are a couple of new elements added in the story, it fails to rectify the biggest plot hole of its source material.

The story of Silent House follows Sarah, a young woman who's at her family vacation house with her father & uncle and is helping them clean the property and make it ready for sale. While her uncle is out for an errand, she hears strange noises, followed by an attack on her father after which she attempts to get out of the house but finds herself trapped inside and terrorised by a possible intruder.

Written, co-produced & co-directed by Laura Lau, with added directional effort coming from Chris Kentis, Silent House is quite a tedious film to sit through considering that I've already seen the original and while that film suffered from numerous shortcomings of its own, what sucks about Silent House is that it ends up making the very same mistakes all over again as if no one cared to question the whole absurdity of its major plot twist.

The images captured by its ever-moving camera is edited to give the illusion of an unbroken take from start to finish but the gimmick fails to add or elevate the tension. At 87 minutes, the film still feels a tad too long as only one thing keeps happening in the whole movie. The only effort comes from Elizabeth Olsen who carries the whole film on her own & tries to do whatever she can but unfortunately Olsen doesn't have enough material to work with here.

On an overall scale, Silent House is an unnecessary remake of an already mediocre original that fails to take the advantage of the opportunity it had to improve on the shortcomings of that Uruguayan chiller. The scares are quite predictable, that major plot twist in the final act is as illogical as before, its one shot technique is quite useless, it is longer than it needs to be, and is barely held together by Olsen's committed performance. Another addition in the long list of pathetic remakes churned out by Hollywood, Silent House is worth skipping.

Directors Chris Kentis and Laura Lau give us a story about a young woman, Sarah, who is sealed inside her family's secluded lake house. With no way out, events become terrifying. The direction was fine and all of the suspense points seem to be there, albeit a bit predictable. I'm not sure who to credit whenever there is two, sometimes three, directors on board.

The cast had fine actors involved including Adam Trese, Elizabeth Olsen, Eric Sheffer Stevens, Julia Taylor Ross. Elizabeth Olsen did a good job and it doesn't hurt that she is nice to look at.

Interesting camera work on this movie. There seems to be a lot of static shots, that work most of the time. I'm sure that these are choices that the director (s) made and I applaud them for making choices and sticking to them.

This is a story based on a concept that is not very original, but what is important is the execution.

Would I recommend it? I'm not sure if this is for everyone. Some may pick it apart just a little too much. For my, I enjoyed it for what it was.

I had been anticipating this one when it came out, and since then sort of forgot about it. I finally saw it with some hesitation, and... I liked it enough. The concept of appearing as a single-take is used for all it's worth. The cinematography is pretty brilliant, and really does make the film scary. There are some really great horror scenes here, scenes that amount to undeniable levels of terror. The other reason why the film is as unnerving as it is sometimes is because of Olsen. I haven't seen a performance this unbelievably scared as sh*t in a very long time, and Olsen squeezes the film's potential for all it's worth. Many times the reason you jump is because of Olsen's screams and terror. Not a very three-dimensional character, but a big reason the film works is because of how she delivers.

I was hoping I wouldn't hate the ending, but yeah, I kinda did. I got the big "twist" early on, as it's kinda obvious with how certain characters "communicate" with each other. Once the lead started seeing certain people and figures, I knew what had happened. That wasn't as much the problem as it was how they executed it. Very laughably idiotic, not to mention the dialogue was horrible and on-the-nose.

Very flawed ending and weak characters/dialogue, but otherwise a well- directed and impeccably photographed horror film with a brilliant central performance. This is another reason to keep looking out for Elizabeth Olsen.