Silent House

This week in the corner I am going to take a look at an interesting movie directed by Chris Kentis and Laura Lau called Silent House.  Kentis and Lau last teamed up in the 2003 creepy shark movie Open Water.  Their reunion for Silent House 9 years later is a shot for shot remake of an Uruguayan film of the same name.  Silent House follows Sarah, a twenty something who has come to visit her father and uncle in a country home that is old and in need of repair.  The old house has been in the family for years but Sarah's father is trying to fix it up to sell it. Sarah has returned for one last time to help with the repairs and say goodbye to the childhood memories.  When the electricity goes out, and the house goes dark, Sarah's uncle leaves to get an electrician and that is where the scares begin.  Sarah ends up staying behind in the dark house and when her father goes upstairs to do some work, she hears a scream and a thud and then becomes a prisoner in her own house with a what seems to be an intruder who is stalking and lurking around every dark corner.  To be honest the brief synopsis of this movie does not sound all that exciting, but there are some really bright points to this movie.  For starters, Sarah is played by Elizabeth Olsen who is the younger sister of Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen from Full House fame.  I didn't even know that there was another Olsen sister, but I can tell you that Elizabeth is by far the finest actress of the three.  Throughout this movie she exhibits fear in such a believable manner and portrays a ton of emotion without a ton of dialogue.  I was thoroughly impressed by her performance and look forward to seeing her in future projects.  The other interesting hook to this movie is that it is shot to look like one giant 90 minute continuous take.  In actuality the movie was shot in 10-15 minute chunks and edited to look as though it is one long cut.  I knew this going in and I couldn't tell where the edits took place.  The directors do a great job hiding the cuts and the allusion of one long take really adds to the suspense and fear throughout the movie.  The camera swings and turns and spins over shoulders, behind the heads of the actors, and under furniture, all the while never seeming to cut away.  Having said all of this, the movie does have some problems.  For one, this movie follows every maddening horror trope in existence.  There are times when you just want to scream at your TV screen to JUST RUN OUT OF THE HOUSE!, or WHY ARE YOU RUNNING UPSTAIRS!  But after having seen hundreds of horror movies, sometimes you just expect nothing less.  Also, without getting into the ending too much, the movie concludes with a twist that many will probably see from a mile away, but I don't want to write too much and give it away now.  This movie is rated R, but it is not very violent and if you like a thriller more than straight horror, you may get into this movie.  Others may find this a little slow and boring but either way give it a shot and let me know what you think in the comments below!

Silent House can be instantly streamed on Netflix.

Next week, I am going to write about another pretty hard core flick...David Dursten's I Drink Your Blood.