Silent House: A Long Shot At Horror

I needed a late night horror fix so I popped down to a Mavericks to browse through a Redbox

. The cornucopia of B rated horror films was astounding with titles like Piranha 3DD and Shark Attack gracing the sun damaged screen. I did not much feel like watching poorly animated carnivorous fish terrorize buxom women so I turned my attention to the supernatural scare movies. Silent House caught my eye and I thought I would give it a try. I knew nothing about this movie going into it and I was pleasantly surprised with most of the film. I have since done research on the film and am even more impressed after learning about the very limited budget.

The plot is based around a true story that took place in Uruguay. To note, Silent House is an American made version of the original film The Silent House or La Casa Muda as it is known in its original country. Silent House is directed by Chris Kentis and Laura Lau, and the technical side of S.H. keeps with the style of their past film, Open Water.

The film has a very limited cast with only four speaking members and the camera exclusively follows Sarah, played by Elizabeth Olsen. The movie is filmed and edited in such a way that it appears to happen in one continuous shoot, and for a while I thought this was the case and marveled at the acting prowess and camera work. The cover advertises experience 88 minutes of real fear captured in real time and that is exactly what is delivered.

Extremely long takes wander through a dark and foreboding house that Sarah grew up in as a child. Strange things begin to happen when Sarah and her father are alone downstairs and she hears noises coming from upstairs. Things quickly become confusing as Sarah is running from what appears to be an intruder, but everything is in question.

This confusion amplifies the fear, but at times also dilutes it. Towards the beginning, when Sarah starts to cower in fear underneath a table (the first of many times), I could not figure out what she was so frightened by. As far as she knows, only her father and herself are in the house and she has no apparent reason to be frightened. The questions resolve themselves with a twist at the end of the film that seems cheap at first, but the more I think about it the more I can appreciate it.

While there are plenty of legitimate scare moments in Silent House the real accomplishment is putting together an effective movie in real time. Complex tracking shots with one camera coordinate with the actors movements mostly seamlessly. There is also a heavy use of mirrors in the film and not once does the camera get caught in the frame and the editing does a great job of taking out the crews noises.

Silent House creates an intimate relationship with Elizabeth Olsen who is constantly on camera. The 88 minute film

manages to explore the depths of the human psyche without the use of gore, special effects, or cheap scare tactics.

by: Zack Mandell

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