Movie Review - Silent House

Silent House (2012)

Starring Elizabeth Olsen, Adam Trese, and Eric Sheffer Stevens

Directed by Chris Kentis and Laura Lau

Let's be honest -- if you've heard of Silent House, you're well aware of its reason for existence.  It's an 85-minute film shot in one single take...sort of.  More specifically, it's a film that appears to be shot in one take, but is in fact ten shots ranging from five to ten minutes each masterfully edited together to give the illusion of one continuous shot without any cutting.  In terms of technical achievement, directors Chris Kentis and Laura Lau have crafted a nifty looking film.  While not without its directional flaws -- certain "scares" at the start of the film are poorly realized and almost difficult to visually comprehend because they happen so quickly and oftentimes fall out of the single take's frame of vision -- Silent House is still a fun film school experience much like Hitchcock's Rope which utilized the same technique over half a century ago.  Unfortunately, the story takes a foolishly silly twist that fails the movie in the end.

Elizabeth Olsen is Sarah, a young woman who is helping to renovate her father's lakehouse. As the day wears on, Sarah finds herself hearing noises in the boarded up house only to discover that those sounds are courtesy of a home invader who seems intent on harming Sarah, her father (Adam Trese), and her uncle (Eric Sheffer Stevens).

Considering the technique used to create the film, a simple story fits the bill and Silent House definitely begins with a simplistic premise.  However, this remake of a early 2000 Uruguayan film piles on a rather unnecessary twist ending that ultimately disappointed me.  Admittedly, even before that, the film felt long at certain points -- I found myself checking the clock several times which is never a good thing, particularly in a film as short as this one.

But despite its problems, the film culls a nice performance from relative newcomer Elizabeth Olsen who is onscreen for close to the film's entirety.  Her character is a bit of an oddball at the film's onset, but Olsen won me over by managing to remain a presence I wanted to watch for 85 minutes.  She proves to be most effective in the moments the film allows her to be silent (a shot of which is provided in the poster above), generating a real sense of fear and tension in simple facial tics and eye-widening -- not an easy task and made even more difficult by the film's usage of long takes.

Still, while I'm an admirer of the technical achievements of the film (which, to also give it credit, I found it very impressive that I kind of forgot I was watching a one-take film about two-thirds of the way), the story just lacked "a reason for being."  Had it gotten rid of the twist ending, I can't help but think it would have been a more effective movie.  Not all horror films need to have a "Gotcha!" moment at the end and Silent House should have abided by that dictum.

The RyMickey Rating:  C