One of the first horror movies to be released this year, the film “Silent House” brought to audiences yet another cliched story sure to fade into an endless abyss of grisly gore and long forgotten horror films. Although the movie starred the talented Elizabeth Olsen as the beautiful protagonist trapped within her family’s vacation house, the casting did little to improve the quality of the film. In fact, apart from the surprising lack of music, and the first thirty minutes of the film, the only remotely interesting aspect of the film was the fact that it was supposedly shot in one continuous take. Sadly, this proved to be a myth. Filmed in ten-minute segments, the film was merely edited to hide all cuts. Despite this, the one-take feel of the film added to the quality and made everything seem a bit more realistic.
That being said, this movie was a major disappointment. The plot line, overused and overrated, lacked any semblance of originality, and deteriorated after the first half hour of the film. Elizabeth Olsen plays a psychotic girl named Sarah who goes with her brother and abusive father to their family vacation house in order to spend some time away from the world to relax. The mild gore proved disappointing, however the disturbing scenes of incest and sexual abuse certainly made up for the lack of blood and guts, no doubt giving audiences a bit more than they had asked for.
Directed by Chris Kentis and Laura Lau, “Silent House” proved to be no better than “The Devil Inside”–a horror movie released earlier this year–giving very little hope for horror films in 2012. Like nearly every horror film released after Oren Peli’s “Paranormal Activity” in 2007, Silent House attempts to create a real time feel with seemingly continuous, no-cut shots, making the film even more uninteresting and unoriginal. Moreover, nearly every shot was shaky and out of focus (save those featuring the assets of the protagonist), making it hard to watch, and overall visually unappealing.
Needless to say, the film “Silent House”, unleashed upon audiences on March 9th, proves to be a rather depressing disappointment. With such generic and forgettable horror films constantly being released, one cannot help but see a rather abysmal future for the genre as a whole. It would seem that quality horror films have been few and far between since the age of “Saw,” Freddy Krueger, and Leatherface; in fact, they seem to grow scarcer and scarcer as the years progress, leaving little hope for whatever comes next.
