Movie Review: Silent House
…but Deadly House.
To anyone who got that joke without any prompting, how are things going in your third grade class? Mine is great. Anyway, I saw Silent House last night and am kind of pleased. There are two kinds of horror movies. The first is the lame slasher film that has a double handful of teenagers getting butchered in assorted gruesome ways by some maniac in an isolated cabin in the woods (Friday the 13th image courtesy of the Horror Movie T Shirts). These films quickly devolved into a body count meter and are generally more comedy than horror. The second kind is the one where hardly anyone dies, but over the course of the film you get to really know and care about the characters and are therefore much more worried for them. The horror in these films is much more palpable, and your concern helps put you in their shoes. Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark is a good example of this, and Silent House definitely fits into that camp.
Another thing that makes this movie work for me is lead actress Elizabeth Olsen (Martha Marcy May Marlene and a bunch of Mary Kate and Ashley garbage). She has been playing third banana to the Olsen twins all her life, only to surface with her own acting career and an apparent ability to act that goes far beyond anything her sisters have done. In the story of my mind she is Cinderella. While her sisters are handed everything on a stick she has to work away in the kitchen, learning how to be a real actress, not a super hot novelty act, and consequently has smelted herself into an alloy far stronger than her sisters. I predict 20 years from now we will still be impressed with her performances while the Olsen twins will be another question on Trivial Pursuit Gen Y version.
Of course, I know nothing of the dynamics of the Olsen family or her relationship with the twins. I just like having stories in my head.
Anyway, Silent House. It is a creepy horror/psycho drama that I found intense and gripping. That is not to say there aren’t some problems, but overall I was totally engaged. The producers claim all 88 minutes was shot on one camera, with a few breaks here and there. I suppose that is doable, but I saw a lot of shots that would be easy to cut in and out of. The camera bounces around a lot, reminiscent of found footage but really more about trying to put you in Elizabeth’s shoes. For the most part it succeeds.
I won’t get too into the story, as it is pretty simple and also has some stuff I don’t want to spoil. Elizabeth Olsen plays Sarah, a young girl helping her father John (Adam Trese-40 Days and 40 Nights, Palookaville, Zodiac) and her uncle Peter (Eric Sheffer Stevens-As the World Turns, Law and Order: Criminal Intent, Body of Proof) fix up the dilapidated family lake house. The house is apparently built entirely of foyers, creepy hallways, and cramped bedrooms. Peter takes off after an argument with his brother, leaving Sarah and John alone in a spooky mansion.
At that point it appears someone is in the house with them. John gets knocked out, leaving Sarah alone to run, pant, and scream in terror at every turn. She is locked in the house and all the windows are boarded up. The power is out so she is left with some propane lanterns and a couple flashlights. There are a lot of scenes of her running, falling, hiding, and crying all over the place. Plots thicken, a dark secret about the house is revealed, and things seem to go from bad to worse.
The stars. Really scary at points. One star. You really feel Sarah’s terror, and connect nicely with her throughout the film. One star. Elizabeth Olsen is easy on the eyes. One star. A lot of things that seem to make little sense early on in the film (and would have rated some black holes) get wrapped up nicely towards the end. One star. Excellent performance from Elizabeth. She really can act. One star. Even if they did have to cut and splice a little, the camera work and shooting were all really long, hard to do scenes, making it all the more impressive. One star. Interesting, different movie from what we are used to seeing. One star. A horror movie that does not rely on body count. One star. Overall a fun, exciting movie. Two stars. Total: ten stars.
The black holes. The movie struggles to give us any real insight into Sarah’s character beyond what is going on at the moment. One black hole. You know all those “Don’t go in there” moments you hate in horror films? This one has more than a few of them. One black hole. This movie was so intense and focused that I felt it really could have used a modest bit of comic relief. Cat in the closet sort of thing. One black hole. The jumpy camera made for some hard to follow scenes, and there were more than a few moments when the lighting meant we were staring at a grey blog on a black screen. The single camera made it hard to keep everything in focus. One black hole. Total: four black holes.
A grand total of six stars. Excellent score, and kudos to Ms. Olsen for a job well done. If you are into this type of horror try to see it on a big screen as I think a lot of the jumpy camera and generally poor lighting will make some of the horror get lost on a TV. Not a good date movie IMO. Sure it’s scary, but I think the terror of the main character will hit your date pretty hard.
Thanks as always for reading. Nothing to see right now, but I think I am going to write up something tomorrow that I should have done a couple months ago. Follow me on Twitter @NerdKungFu or email me at [email protected]. Of course, you can always make a comment here as well. I have to run. Have a good day.
Dave
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