Directors: Chris Kentis and Laura Lau
Cast: Elizabeth Olsen, Adam Trese, Eric Sheffer Stevens, Julia Taylor Ross
Rating: C
“Silent House” is remake of a Uruguayan film called “La Casa Muda.” Directors Chris Kentis and Laura Lau, a husband and wife team known for the film “Open Water”, have painstakingly filmed the movie to look like one continuous shot. Miraculously one can hardly even tell where breaks in shooting the film occur because it is crafted so well. Filming “Silent House” this way definitely required a great deal of skill so hats off to both directors.
Sarah (Elizabeth Olsen) is with her father John (Adam Trese) at their vacation lake house. She is there to help him clean up the place so that it can be sold. Uncle Peter (Eric Sheffer Stevens), John’s brother, is also there to help with more complicated problems like plumbing or electric issues. After the brothers argue, Peter takes off in his truck to go get supplies. Right about now Sarah starts hearing things creaking, cracking, slamming, and stuff going bump in the night. Her father tells her it is nothing and that she needs to remember that old houses will make funny noises. Just as Sarah takes a sigh of relief she hears a loud thump in the next room. She calls out to dear daddy and there is no response.
What takes place from here is Sarah racing frantically from room to room in a nearly pitch dark house with only an oil lamp to keep her company. We are led to believe that the house is haunted and something or someone is after the young woman. Sara finally finds her dad in a pool of blood unconscious on the floor and gets completely freaked out. Trying to keep her wits, Sara makes an attempt to go get help. The tension and fear mount when a dark figure of a man appears and heavy footsteps throughout the house can be heard. Sarah is desperately trying to stay one step ahead of the intruder or ghost or whatever it is in the house with her.
Elizabeth Olsen, who is in almost every shot of the movie, is the main focus of “Silent House.” The young actress carries this burden off quite well. You can feel her paranoia escalate with each breath she takes. In several scenes Sarah desperately wants to scream but manages to forcefully swallow her fear to prevent herself from being discovered by whoever or whatever is out to get her. Shrieking bloody murder is what you expect when Sara opens her mouth but instead nothing, not even a wisp of air, escapes from her throat. Olsen’s tearful facial expressions, nervous twitching, and heavy breathing add a lot to the feel of terror that this film injects us with.
There are plenty of images popping up throughout the film that will make you jump, force your eyes to go wide, and have you gripping the arms of your seat. The suspense will make you will feel the need to yell out to Sarah not to walk through dark crevices of the old creepy abode.
“Silent House” almost had me hooked as a spooky terrifying ghost story that I would rush home to tell my friends to go out and see. Then I watched as the film takes a turn for the worse once the mystery behind the old lake front property starts to unfold. Now instead of being intrigued I was just rolling my eyes thinking “good grief – whose bright idea was it to come up with this explanation?” The movie completely disappoints at the end as the reason for Sara’s neurotic behavior is revealed. Someone sitting next to me during the movie accurately commented “now that is messed up!” I came away feeling more disgusted than scared once I realized what was really happening. Ultimately, “Silent House” makes absolutely no sense and will not rank high on the list of beautifully crafted horror films.
