Cast: Elizabeth Olsen, Adam Trese, Eric Sheffer Stevens
MPAA Rating: Rated
R
In an era where most films released these days are either sequels, prequels, reboots, or remakes it's hard to find a good original film out there, sadly when we get an original film we get "Silent House."
The premise of "Silent House" is quiet intriguing. The film is shot in one continuous shot and the entire film is shot in real time which is around 88 minutes and features a young girl (Elizabeth Olsen) being terrorized by an unknown prescence in her childhood home when she returns with her father and Uncle to fix it up for sale. When I first heard about the film I felt that this had all the makings of a good horror film and everything to the premise, cast, and directors Chris Kentis and Laura Lau who filmed the cult classic film "Open Water" in 2003, its just sad none of that works together in this film.
The first thing I want to talk about and will be the big question on everyone's mind is does the premise work and the answer is a huge "NO". For a film that is only suppose to take place over 88 minutes, a lot happens and the questions of believablity scretch way beyond what is happening on screen. Sometimes when watching the film you become bored because since this is one continuous shot you have to watch characters do a lot of filler like search in rooms where nothing is at and find nothing and there is basically just a lot of filler you have to sit through to get to any real moments of terror that are few and far between in the script. You can't afford to have a lot of filler in your script when your dealing with this type of premise and it ends up clogging up the film where a lot of the story is rushed to its terrible and predictable ending.
One thing I thought about the film was that even if the film was not that good was that I could at least expect a really good performance from main actress Elizabeth Olsen whose star turning role in the indie film "Martha Marcy May Marlene" showcased her great acting skills and was even a good film that I'd recommend you watch but her performance in this film was really bad and way over-the-top and ended up getting a little bit on my nerves. I understand when you are in a situation like she is in this film that you're gonna be scarred and hysterical but the way she tried to show that fear didn't reach me the way I know she can and I don't know if it was the film's fault or she's just a one hit wonder, only time will tell. The other actors in the film didn't stand out at all as they were all pretty one dimensional and stereotypical and looked like they were basically brought into the film to keep the budget low as these characters could've been played by anyone.
The last complaint I would like to mention is the directing. The thing I noticed and its usually a little bit harder to noticing errors in directing but a lot stood out in this film. One thing I noticed was that for a film shot in one continuous shot, they're were a lot of choppy scenes and editing cutting from room to room and I am thinking if this is one shot then we wouldn't be switching rooms like this. Another thing and its more of a small issue was the lighting. At the beginning of the film when the character is first being terrorized it is early in the day and the sun is shining but the entire time she is in the house it is like pitch black and stuff like that just irks me a little.
In the end it is intriguing to see hollywood still taking risks like this, but even with a good premise you still need to have the basics to a good movie; acting, directing, and story. One last thought is that this ending was one of the most dumbest ill conceived endings I have ever seen and they through all conventions out the window at the end to give a shock ending and thats cheap filmmaking. I would recommend another film in this ones place, but if you pick up a dvd of movie anywhere it'll be better than this film.
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