Silent House | Review

Among the top items that’ll be included among kids’ sleepovers for years to come, Silent House a PG-13 type horror thriller is a rewarding follow-up to Chris Kentis and Laura Lau’s debut film, Open Water. Especially being a remake (of Uruguayan Cannes 2010 premiere La Casa Muda), this will never be accused of being original, but along with House of the Devil, it’s one of the best of its kind in years. Showcasing a new star in Elizabeth Olsen, this one shot concept is all about the execution—which is deadly. Indeed the film jumps the shark when it gets crazy in the end and tries to explain everything with a device we’ve seen over and over again, but the momentum and build-up in the first hour is enough to please the most difficult fans of the genre.

The entire movie consists of “one take.” One take remains in quotes, because even with Alfred Hitchcock’s Rope, it’s never actually one take. They do quite the job of it though, moving indoors and out seamlessly, motivating the lighting everywhere, and carrying the long takes for much more than 11 minutes of a reel and (I’d have to watch it again and keep track to be sure) what seems like as much as 40 minutes. This device keeps the tension up, and holds our attention, even increasing suspense, as we watch Sarah (Elizabeth Olsen) occupy herself with remedial tasks.

The three level home in the film, where all of the action takes place, is a boarded up summer home that Sarah and her father John (Adam Trese) are cleaning up to sell after squatters have been staying there. It’s established early that all the lighting will be motivated, with strategically placed and handheld lamps doing the trick. It’s one of those horror films that winks at the audience and amidst the fright there is a break with lines like “I’m going to go check the sound upstairs, stay right here.” The audience knows what’s up, and it doesn’t break the suspense, but does give us a little moment the chuckle and breath before we go back into another scary part.

Kentis and writer Laura Lau, pull out all of the tricks we’ve seen before, but they do it well. Even though we’ve seen this already, we are never upset with seeing it done well again and this is infinitely better than current hot items such as Paranormal Activity. Elizabeth Olsen manages to meet high expectations for the lead, until the last few minutes when her character just goes off the rails – her acting peers however, are beyond wooden terrible and make her look like she’s struggling acting with them at times.