Silent House (2011)

The unbroken shot is admirable, but when it is used to disguise the insipid story it becomes a labour to the eye.

This movie.... could have been one of the scariest home invasion movies of this decade. But the decision that was made for the twist absolutely ruined it. The first act and most of the second act were honestly in my opinion horror perfection. The overall very good acting (especially by Olsen in her technical debut film), the mixture of a one take film, with no music to tell the audience when something is going to happen, and black house where flashlights are required to see make it such a suspenseful and terrifying experience. I found my heart pounding with anticipation of what we'd be shown, and I found myself also covering my eyes in scenes where it felt like the watcher was going into a room first and would be the first to be exposed to something possibly horrific. It worked so well. But then in the second half, when she gets out of the house (the first time) and see's the girl in the grass, but then looks away and looks back and shes gone, it instantly turned off the scare factor. It was like knowing that she was just seeing things and that she most likely wasn't in as much danger as initially suspected made me not as scared, because it's all in her head. But, with the car scene, and the Polaroid camera scene, it brought back that horror that made my heart race. But with the end of the second act and entire third act... it fell completely face first. *SPOILERS* After the Polaroid scene, when the "people" are in the room with her talking, and she walks through the house with the gun, it just didn't really work because the average movie watcher would understand that she's clearly seeing things, possibly she had schizophrenia, or she was just plain crazy, and again, it took away the initial home invasion feel. But the final scene... It was a complete mind f**k. She becomes multiple people, and then she hurts someone while also hurting herself, and then gets a little insane with her father, it didn't make any sense, and completely broke the rhythm that the film barely maintained after the psychological elements were introduced. Then the dad ends up beating her... it just didn't have any flow or make sense. And that's pretty much how it ends. She kills her father, the photographs that were hinted throughout the movie (Sort of) reveal that her father may have sexually abused her, but I couldn't really tell... it just fell apart. I think that if they would have kept with the home invasion suspense/thriller/horror, it could have been a gem of a movie, as long as they kept with what they had started with. I don't know why they felt the twist they made was necessary, it was just confusing, aggravating, and ruined the movie. Honestly if they would have just ended the movie when she ran out the first time and managed to leave, it would have been so much better than what it turned into. I give it a 6/10 and not a lower score because of how fantastic the good parts were. It's a shame that such potential was wasted.

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.

Sarah and her father, John, along with Sarah's uncle, Peter, all go to their lakeside home to clear things out and do some repairs as they have decided to sell it. Not long after Peter leaves to get some supplies, Sarah hears noises from inside the house, so her father goes to see if he can see anyone. After hearing a loud thump, Sarah discovers that her father has been attacked. What was supposed to be a simple job in clearing out their house, turns into a fight for survival. Unfortunately, there's something more going on here than she thinks.Silent House is an American remake of the Uruguayan film La Casa Muda (The Silent house) and is actually a pretty decent psychological thriller. The original film was good but it was a film that you really had to pay attention too, and this one isn't really too dissimilar but it does kind of spell it out in a more obvious way.There are obviously a few different scenarios between the two, as remakes tend to have, with one of the main ones being the character of Sophie...a childhood friend of Sarah's, but this isn't bad because these differences give the film it's own wee feel.Like I mentioned above, the film is one that you have to pay attention to because it's easy to miss little things here and there that all add to the story. Miss these and you'll be sitting there wondering that the hell is going on. Also, it's not a "lost footage found" type of horror either, so if you are expecting something like that then you'll be sorely disappointed.The movie - like the original - is filmed in such a way that it seems like one long continuous shot which I feel adds to the atmosphere of the film as there are no breakaways to interrupt the flow. Silent House is pretty well acted and while it's not the most amazing film you'll ever see, it's still a decent movie worth watching.