The unbroken shot is admirable, but when it is used to disguise the insipid story it becomes a labour to the eye.

This movie.... could have been one of the scariest home invasion movies of this decade. But the decision that was made for the twist absolutely ruined it. The first act and most of the second act were honestly in my opinion horror perfection. The overall very good acting (especially by Olsen in her technical debut film), the mixture of a one take film, with no music to tell the audience when something is going to happen, and black house where flashlights are required to see make it such a suspenseful and terrifying experience. I found my heart pounding with anticipation of what we'd be shown, and I found myself also covering my eyes in scenes where it felt like the watcher was going into a room first and would be the first to be exposed to something possibly horrific. It worked so well. But then in the second half, when she gets out of the house (the first time) and see's the girl in the grass, but then looks away and looks back and shes gone, it instantly turned off the scare factor. It was like knowing that she was just seeing things and that she most likely wasn't in as much danger as initially suspected made me not as scared, because it's all in her head. But, with the car scene, and the Polaroid camera scene, it brought back that horror that made my heart race. But with the end of the second act and entire third act... it fell completely face first. *SPOILERS* After the Polaroid scene, when the "people" are in the room with her talking, and she walks through the house with the gun, it just didn't really work because the average movie watcher would understand that she's clearly seeing things, possibly she had schizophrenia, or she was just plain crazy, and again, it took away the initial home invasion feel. But the final scene... It was a complete mind f**k. She becomes multiple people, and then she hurts someone while also hurting herself, and then gets a little insane with her father, it didn't make any sense, and completely broke the rhythm that the film barely maintained after the psychological elements were introduced. Then the dad ends up beating her... it just didn't have any flow or make sense. And that's pretty much how it ends. She kills her father, the photographs that were hinted throughout the movie (Sort of) reveal that her father may have sexually abused her, but I couldn't really tell... it just fell apart. I think that if they would have kept with the home invasion suspense/thriller/horror, it could have been a gem of a movie, as long as they kept with what they had started with. I don't know why they felt the twist they made was necessary, it was just confusing, aggravating, and ruined the movie. Honestly if they would have just ended the movie when she ran out the first time and managed to leave, it would have been so much better than what it turned into. I give it a 6/10 and not a lower score because of how fantastic the good parts were. It's a shame that such potential was wasted.

This film honestly did take me by surprise. Silent House was well acted, and well shot. The actors, including Olsen, all performed very well in this movie. This movie is affective when it comes to being scary and giving the audience members chills, I know it did for me. There really isn't any background music or anything, which was probably the most effective part of the movie when it comes to being scary. The plot summary for silent house was pretty intricate and unique, never really seen a plot like this one before. This movie has very cool twists and turns, especially towards the ending, and to be honest, they made the film. This movie was very enjoyable and is a cool flick for horror movie fans. Some scenes did drag just a bit, but not much, and once you got through them, things sped up again and got back on track. Overall, I give Silent House a 7/10.

A remake of the Uruguayan film "La Casa Muda", this film stars Elizabeth Olsen as Sarah, a young woman helping her father John (Adam Trese) and uncle Peter (Eric Sheffer Stevens) fix up their old lakeside family home so it can be sold. The trouble is, it's currently become a rather spooky place what with the electricity out and the house being rather isolated. Sarah begins to suspect the presence of malevolent individuals who are out to stalk and terrorize her and her family."Silent House" is elevated to some degree by decent acting. Olsen certainly can play scared very, very well. And the directors, Chris Kentis and Laura Lau ("Open Water"), copy the template used by the original film (as well as the grandfather of this sort of thing, Alfred Hitchcocks' "Rope") in trying to get the whole thing done in one continuous take. They build considerable suspense with their minimal lighting and less is more approach. There *is* some gore, but not a whole lot of it. Kentis and Lau also try to put roadblocks in Sarahs' path by making it hard to just walk out the door, and by ensuring that help won't be readily available. The tension is undeniable.Unfortunately, things do downhill in the final quarter hour or so with a reveal and resolution that we've seen far too many times by this point for it to be that effective. The actors do their best to sell it, but one can't help but feel some disappointment. This ends up making the film on the routine side, along with the overused device of having characters who are supposedly on the same side, scaring each other.Despite the filmmakers' best efforts, "Silent House" is merely okay.Six out of 10.