By Angell Benjamin
Staff Writer
Based on true events and a previous movie by Gustavo Hernandez, “Silent House” is a suspenseful movie that keeps viewers on the edge of their seats and their adrenaline pumping from beginning to end.
The 85-minute horror/thriller, directed by Chris Kentis and written by Laura Lau, takes place at a family’s lakeside vacation home. Sarah (Elizabeth Olsen), her father, John (Adam Trese), and her uncle Peter (Eric Sheffer Stevens) are in the process of moving out of their retreat home when things suddenly begin to go wrong.
Sarah begins to hear thumps in the house and instantly becomes scared. She and John go to investigate the weird sounds and soon realize they may not be the only ones in the house. With only lanterns to guide her and the realization there is no real way to escape whomever is after her, Sarah has to fight for her life and find out the deep secrets the house holds before it is too late.
The plot is interesting in how it unfolds throughout the film. Viewers are haunted by questions like, ‘Who is this masked man that seems to be stalking the family,’ ‘Why is this house so important to the family’ and ‘Why do John and Peter keep hiding certain pictures found around the house from Sarah?’ Viewers will also be transfixed when watching a little girl who keeps making mysterious appearances throughout the film.
The plot was extremely suspenseful. Lau does an amazing job building up thrilling moments in the movie rather than just throwing them in the audience’s face, like so many horror movies currently do. An example of a suspenseful moment is when Sarah is searching for her father. As she is looking from room to room, she is unaware of an ominous figure haunting the hallway.
Another scene of suspense is when all the lanterns set up around the house suddenly go out. Sarah must use an old Polaroid camera flash to make it through the darkness of the house and thwart her assailant.
The acting in this film was superb. Olsen (“Martha Marcy May Marlene”) portrays Sarah so well viewers are caught up in the film to the point they are screaming at the movie screen and jumping out of their seats trying to warn her of the impending doom. She makes the audience feel the fear someone in her position would’ve felt and makes them wonder what they would have done had they been in her shoes. Trese (“40 Days and 40 Nights,”) and Stevens’ (“Julie and Julia”) parts seem small, but both played a major role in making their characters come to life and making the audience feel their emotions.
Kentis also did an excellent job filming this movie. The film was presented in real-take, or making viewers feel like they are the ones with the camera, much like “The Devil Inside” and the “Paranormal Activity” trilogy. Kentis puts a twist on the real-time aspect by making this film one continual sequence so, it appears everything is happening one after the other rather than in a regular film where you will get the cut in between each scene.
“Silent House” is a movie worth seeing in theaters, but it might be even better at home because the whole time you will be looking over your shoulder hoping no one will be coming after you.
