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Silent House Review
By Darrin Jones / March 9
Well seeing as this is a psychological thriller, it’s really hard to get into too much of the plot without spoiling all the big reveals but fortunately the plot is the simplest ever put forward on the big-screen. Sarah (as played by Elizabeth Olsen) is stuck in a boarded up house after something mysteriously happens to her father, John (Adam Trese), and she’s stalked all through the place by a nondescript man that likes to slowly enter a room then leave. Trust me when I say that the use of the word “thriller” is generous as the film settled into a cycle of: find key, try lock, run away, try next lock and repeat.
Now something I did like about this movie is its minimalist approach. Silent House has exactly four actors in it, it has one location, it has one camera, it has one scare every once in a while, and it has one twist ending. Part of the reason I was so interested in this movie was that it boasted that it was all one continuous shot; both adapting on the frightening aspect of only seeing, hearing, and knowing what the protagonist does while it’s happening to them and improving on it by removing the idea that there’s actually someone filming all this. It’s shot by hand but it’s not a “documentary” or found footage and even though it’s shot by hand there are some interesting moments of cinematography that spice things up.
There was a juicy little mind-bending moment near the end that seemed straight of the Shining and I was crossing my fingers that the movie could keep up the pace but unfortunately it never became anything more then a gimmick flick. The cliche ending and lack of any substantive scares just makes the whole experience average. It’s all run-of-the-mill and when it comes to horrifying and thrilling audiences, run-of-the-mill is just not that compelling.
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