Silent House, directed by Chris Kentis and Laura Lau, the pair behind the thrilling film Open Water, is a remake of the 2010 Uruguayan film La Casa Muda. The story centers on a young woman, her father and her uncle working together cleaning out and repairing an old lakeside family cabin; in the process ending up stalked, while "trapped" inside.

Elizabeth Olsen, having received high praise for her performance in Martha Marcy May Marlene, gives a solid performance as the young Sarah. If her first two feature films are a sign of things to come, then Ashley and Mary-Kate's younger sister is well on her way to establishing herself as an extremely talented actress on her way to a very successful film career. Sadly, the same can't be said for Adam Trese, who plays Sarah's father John, and Eric Sheffer Stevens, who plays John's brother and Sarah's creepy uncle, Peter. Neither of the two men is capable of holding their own when sharing screen time with Elizabeth; whether it's in delivering the dialogue or just acting out a scene.

The most impressive thing about Silent House is that the movie appears to have been filmed in one continuous take; running the entire 88 minute length of the film. The problem with shooting the film in this fashion is that not every scene works. In one sequence, we follow Sarah as she runs throughout the house trying to hide, and then escape. The scene is well done, and is at times reasonably suspenseful. In other scenes, however, the camera does more harm than good; such as poorly focused shots on the appearances of ghostly figures and the jostling of the camera as we run along with Sarah as she attempts to get away from the house.

As someone who sees many movies, there's nothing that bothers me more than when a director, writer, producer and/or studio thinks the audience is easy to get over on. The biggest issue with Silent House is that it was marketed incorrectly. The movie is not a horror film; it is a psychological thriller. If the film had been marketed as such, and wasn't done in the single shot format, I think the potential was there for a decent movie. If the film had been made as a horror movie and followed through on that, I think it could have been better. As it is, Silent House is a major disappointment that never meets its potential on any level.

Grade: C-

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Sarah (Elizabeth Olsen) is helping her father (Adam Trese) and uncle (Eric Sheffer Stevens) to renovate the family's old lakeside house before selling it. It's a place they have rarely visited in years. Local kids have smashed all the windows and blown the electrics meaning that the boarded up windows let in no light. The only light available is that which comes from a torch or hand-held lamp. While in the semi darkness and after her uncle has left for the day, Sarah hears a noise which her father goes to check out. He never returns. Sarah is left alone in the house with someone or something out to get her and her family and no way out.

The whole film was shot in such a way as that it looks like one continuous shot. I noticed the odd cut here and there but overall the idea is very successful. It genuinely feels as though Elizabeth Olsen is in the house for 85 minutes, running, hiding from and fighting whatever is after her. Using just one camera, Olsen is on screen for about 84 of the 85 minutes and has to carry the entire film. She does so with great aplomb. The one shot idea isn't original and indeed the film itself is a remake of a 2010 Uruguayan film but it's a nice gimmick that is well used.

The house is brilliantly dressed to maximise the creepy feeling. It creaks and whistles and is filled with all manner of sinister fittings from old furniture and toys to large objects under sheets and unknown items half hidden in the shadows. It also feels a little maze like though you get to know your way around as the film progresses. Elizabeth Olsen is dressed in typical horror attire with a tight white vest which shows off her 'ample talents' as well as the blood and dirt she accumulates throughout the film. Her performance is also mind blowingly excellent. She was superb in Mary, Marcey, Marlene and if anything even better here. She starts off a bit slowly but after twenty minutes goes all the way up to eleven where she stays until the final few moments during which she is pushing twelve. She is even better at the end than she was during the rest of the film.

So far, so good then. Unfortunately there are two major problems. The first is that it is nowhere near scary enough. I get scared by everything and I didn't jump once. Don't get me wrong, it's scarier than Dark Shadows but so is my girlfriend in the morning. For a proper 'scary' horror, it didn't produce the scares it needed to. There was plenty of tension but it didn't go anywhere. My second problem is that I worked out part of the twist after about eight minutes and had unravelled everything by the mid point. The film still ended in a satisfying way but I felt where we were heading was fairly obvious. On the other hand, my girlfriend said she thought about it at the beginning but it didn't totally click with her until the end so maybe I'm in a minority.

Overall the film will be best remembered for its clever cinematography rather than for its scares. It's a nice idea but the plot has been done a thousand times. It creates plenty of tension and intrigue but doesn't deliver the final blow. Elizabeth Olsen continues to impress and I look forward to seeing her again soon.

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Based on the 2010 Uruguayan film of the same name, "Silent House" focuses on Sarah (Elizabeth Olson), a young woman (presumably in her very early 20s) who is helping her father and uncle clean up an old Victorian summer house owned by her family. The house is in disrepair, with no working electricity, a severe mold problem, and every window boarded up due to vandalism. Not a fun place to spend your time, unless you're a member of the Addams Family. One afternoon, while the three are cleaning and doing repairs, Sarah hears noises coming from upstairs. She and her father go to investigate. The subsequent 75 minutes are spent with Sarah hiding from and fighting off an unknown assailant with malicious intent.

I have to start off by saying that, as a seasoned horror fan, I'm appalled by the ridiculous number of one-star reviews for this film on here. I've seen A LOT of horror movies— I know the genre extremely well, I'll leave it at that. And while "Silent House" may not be the greatest film of all time, I can't help but feel that the majority of negative responses to it are from teenagers and others who went in expecting one thing from this film and got something much different. While this is somewhat understandable due to advertising (the trailers for this film almost make it look like a rip-off of the 2008 home-invasion thriller "The Strangers"), I think the bandwagon backlash to this film has been unnecessarily harsh. The fact of the matter is this is an extremely difficult film to properly market, and it appears that the distributors decided to go about it by forcing it into the parameters of typical horror film advertising; and although the trailers and promotional material for the movie were alluring to genre fans, they don't do a good job of representing the film for what it actually is.

Let's face it; conceptually speaking, this film is "been there, done that" in just about every way. The twists and turns of this story have been treaded on before in lots of other films. We know the formula. So, in order for this film to work, the execution is what really matters— the finer details. Fortunately, as far as I'm concerned, the filmmakers hit all the right notes in this department and that is this film's saving grace.

First off, we have the "real time" gimmick. The movie was purportedly filmed in one continuous take, but I spied a couple moments that were a bit too conveniently dark or conveniently erratic, where a cut in the film would be completely unnoticeable to an audience. Regardless, the film was very obviously shot with hand-held cameras and the takes are in fact extremely long (we're talking some at least 10-15 minutes, maybe more).

The camera follows Elizabeth Olsen throughout the entire film, never leaving her once, and the feat this must have been for her and the other actors is impressive to say the least (Olsen blew me away me in last year's "Martha Marcy May Marlene", and she doesn't fail to impress here). Not only does this unique manner of presentation give the actors a platform to prove themselves, but it also involves the audience in a way that most films don't— we see the entire thing unfold right there alongside the character, and that makes the film's scare tactics all the more effective. This mode of storytelling is also impressive on a mere technical level due to the scrupulous orchestration and timing that it demands of both the cast and the crew.

Now, about those other "finer details"— for one, the film's "spooky house" setting is exacerbated by the boarded up windows and interior darkness, leaving potential threats looming in every nook and cranny. This leaves the protagonist (and thus, we, the audience) disoriented in a darkened maze of doors, hallways, staircases, and tons of antique furniture. Can a setting for a horror film get any better than that?

Visually speaking, I was also impressed with this film for its stylistic pursuits. It may be a horror movie, but there are some definite art house moments here that you don't find in big-budget horror films. Hallucinatory sequences in the film— namely a bathroom scene which includes a young girl bathing in a tub full of bloody water and beer bottles, and a toilet hanging from the wall spewing blood— are reminiscent of "The Shining", and are as visually startling as they are relevant to the nasty core of the plot.

Which brings me to another interesting dynamic at work here, which lies in the end reveal. As I said, the formula has been done to death, but the focal point of this film's twist ending is so abhorrent and disturbing that it can't help but stand out like a sore thumb. It's a risky subject matter that we're ultimately dealing with, and the filmmakers and actors handled it extremely well. If that weren't enough for the horror crowd (as it is truly horrific in every sense of the word), the film's climax is complete with sledgehammer action, a psychotic rambling evocative of Mrs. Voorhees, and a good old fashioned taste of feminist vengeance— not necessarily in that order.

Overall, "Silent House" is a winner in my book. The "continuous take" stratagem is involving, Olsen's performance is stellar, and the film's bleakness is reminiscent of 1970s grindhouse films, but is wrapped up with the mentality of a modern-day psychothriller. Throw in a little bit of art house in there, too, for taste. In my opinion, one of the best horror efforts in a long while, and one of the most hyper-criticized films so far this year. 8/10.