Starring Elizabeth Olsen, Adam Trese
Directed by Chris Kentis, Laura Lau
From all accounts (and appearances) shot in a single continuous take, Silent House ranks as an impressive technical achievement. Co-directors Chris Kentis and Laura Lau (Open Water) are not only required to skilfully choreograph the action but also conceive of new gimmicks for generating tension and jolts, rather than falling back on tried-and-true shock cuts. Now if only theyd brought an equal level of inventiveness to their storytelling.
On that front, Laus screenplay offers little more than a rickety girl trapped in a house of horrors scenario. The girl in question is Sarah (Elizabeth Olsen), whos cleaning out her isolated, long-abandoned family vacation home with her father (Adam Trese) and uncle (Eric Sheffer Stevens). With the windows boarded up and doors padlocked in order to ward off squatters, the three-storey house proves inescapable once things start going bump in the night (or late afternoon, as is the case here).
While Trese and Sheffer Stevens wouldve benefitted greatly from the occasional second take, Olsen never falters or withers in the face of cinematographer Igor Martinovics ever-present camera. Nearly as entrancing here as she was in Martha Marcy May Marlene, Olsen uses her expressive eyes to evince the copious past traumas that compound her present terror. As she navigates the labyrinthine structure, the real time conceit allows us to watch her incrementally come apart at the psychological seams.
As Kentis and Lau clumsily reconcile their storylines set-ups/pay-offs ledger, the plot developments increasingly strain credulity. However, Olsens distress remains wholly convincing. Ultimately, its her unbalanced performance that keeps our pulses racing and palms sweating. CW
