Saturday 19 May 2012

Silent House

Mini Blog


My friend and I decided to go and see Avengers on this Bank Holiday Monday but wouldn't you know it, when we got there, all the showings for that evening were sold out. Having little else to choose from other than a Jason Statham movie, we plumped for this horror that I'd seen advertised which had received quite a lot of critical praise.


A tiny cast of only four players, and one creepy old house with all the windows boarded up, are the main focus here. Elizabeth Olsen (the annoying Olsen twins' older sister) plays the main character, Sarah, who's father and uncle are renovating the house. We're told early on that as most of the windows have been smashed by vandals they've boarded them up. That means the only light comes from lanters, torches, candles and a polaroid camera. Good set up. Pretty soon the uncle leaves after getting into an arguement with the father. That leaves Sarah and daddy all alone in the creepy dark house. Then the noises start upstairs.


*Spoiler Alert*
The idea starts well and is executed with plenty of jumps and tension. It had me hooked right until the point where there was a random girl in the bathtub and a urinal dripping blood on the wall. My friend thought that this was a pointer to the fact that Sarah was crazy. I thought it was unnecessary visualisation. There are other ways to point out that someone is crazy. That was just an excuse to show us some dumb things that didn't make sense. 


I liked that the film was made in one continuous take, and thought that showed real talent from the director and Miss Olsen for being able to handle that kind of pressure. And I guess the ending was kinda original (or at least original in a horror setting) but could have been handled so much better. Which was a shame as it started out so promising. In the end this was just another horror film that was a bit jumpy and had a childhood trauma at it's core. So basically, a lot like most other horror films?! 4 out of 10.




Viewing Date - 7th May 2012
UK Release Date - 4th May 2012

Cast Overview:
Elizabeth Olsen ~ Sarah
Adam Trese ~ John
Eric Sheffer Stevens ~ Peter
Julia Taylor Ross ~ Sophia

Directors ~ Chris Kentis and Laura Lau
Writers ~ Gustavo Hernandez (Based on his Film) and Laura Lau (Screenplay)

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