Silent House (2011)
Director: Chris Kentis, Laura Lau
Starring: Elizabeth Olsen, Adam Trese, Eric Shaffer Stevens
Summary Spoilers
A remake of the Uruguayan film, La casa muda. It features Elizabeth Olsen. (Younger sister of the Olsen twins and better actress) The film is about a girl named Sarah (Olsen) who is at her family’s country side house. Her father and Uncle are fixing it up and while she is there she meets a girl about her age who says they used to play together. Sarah has no memory of this but she agrees to hang out with her later. She hears weird noises in the house and then her father goes missing. She learns that she is locked in her house and a mysterious figure follows her through the home. She finds clues that maybe someone has been staying in the house and she finds her father’s body who is still alive. She escapes the home and sees a little girl down the goes to find the intruder inside the home. The car starts to open and she runs back into the house. She finds her Uncle who is eventually attacked by the intruder. She begins to see strange events around the home like a little girl in a bathtub full of blood. She comes down stairs and finds her father tied up under plastic. The girl from earlier is in the house and hands her a key to unlock something, but it is not the doors. She hides when the intruder comes and she realizes it’s herself dragging her Uncle’s body. She is getting confused and the girl vanishes after she tells her to unlock a small box. When she does she finds pictures of herself as a little girl that her father took when he molested her. She unties her father who begins to beat her. He takes his belt off to beat her even more and her Uncle stops him. When he turns around Sarah bashes her father across his head with a sledge hammer and hits him one more time to finish the job. Her uncle begs for his life saying he is sorry for allowing her father to do that. She throws down the hammer and walks out of the house.
The Good
Interesting movie. It is shot in a style where the camera constantly follows Sarah and never cuts away. It was similar to the movie Rope. (Hitchcock and a good movie) Some of the intense moments where she is being chased are terrifying. Olsen is amazing in her performance. She is beyond a scream queen and you can tell she can really act.
The Bad
The twist in the movie seems to fall on its face. It really wasn’t that hard to figure out and they gave too many clues for it. The images she saw as her repressed memories start flooding back, and when her father hid those pictures she finds from her. Parts of the movie were just her crying and wondering around the house and it dragged a bit. I wish the plot was more terrifying and was thicker. Maybe more scenes from the mysterious girl. They should have really worked on building that twist.
Overall
2.5/5 Could have been a lot better. Olsen was the best part of the movie.
Fun facts
Apparently the original film is based on true events from Uruguay in the 1940s.
What’s Next?
The film I hate the most…..I Spit on Your Grave (1978)
In The Spider's Web 