Movie Review: 'Silent House'

“Silent House” is a peculiar experiment in minimalist filmmaking. A remake of the 2010 Uruguayan film, this is a horror movie that sets out to show “real fear captured in real time” – meaning it aims to appear as if the entire movie was done in one long, continuous take.

While the filmmakers have stated that there were a few cuts in the film, it doesn’t change the fact that the camerawork is indeed impressive. Here is a film that called for extremely precise cinematography and choreography, one that goes out of its way to seem as bare as possible, but has a crew giving it their all to make the illusion work.

We aren’t given much of a set up – the idea is that we’re sitting there experiencing the now. The story starts with Sarah (Elizabeth Olsen) helping her dad (Adam Trese) and uncle (Eric Sheffer) fix up the old (translation: creepy) house that they used to vacation at when she was a little girl. It doesn’t take Sarah very long to realize that something ominous is going on with this secluded house.

Olsen, who gave her star-turning performance in last year’s “Martha Marcy May Marlene,” proves that she’s a force to be reckoned with. In a film that’s often uneven, she is the one constant; she has a face that was made to communicate pure terror. I found myself scared more on her behalf than as a result of what was actually happening on screen.


I'll admit, sometimes the lack of obvious pizzazz resulted in a decrease in my attention span. You can only watch someone running through the woods or hiding under a table for so long before you start to think, “Is this what the entire movie is going to be like? Then again, at some points it was that very tactic that had my heart racing. There is often so little noise that any sound whatsoever was comforting, even if was just that of heavy panting from Olsen. Silence is what we fear.

This isn’t the kind of horror movie that’s going to be appealing to the general movie-going audience. Film buffs may be intrigued by the idea and execution, but when you find yourself squinting your eyes looking for cuts more than paying attention to the story, I fear that's a sign that something essential is missing.

The third act predictably throws the horror movie twist at us, but that is one cliché I didn’t much mind. Tension builds and falters too erratically throughout the film, so much so that ending on a point of fear and surprise was the only way to get viewers to come out of “Silent House” feeling a semblance of satisfaction.

Rating: C+