3 out of 5

Director: Chris Kentis, Laura Lau

It’s rare that I have such bi-polar feelings during watching something as a I did with Silent House. As I normally write reviews, I’m admittedly watching things with a building rating / review in mind, and the best films are the ones that make me forget I’m doing this, and I’m just ratcheted to the screen. Although Silent House, from afar, seems like it’d be an excellent creeper film, I found myself fidgety during its runtime. Why? Elizabeth Olsen’s minimally scored tiptoe through a boarded-up house that her family is selling off does her part perfectly, capturing the sort of completely mind-blown freakout that Jennifer Carpenter did so well in Quarantine that really sells the terror and yet, again, I wasn’t on edge. Why? Even though director Chris Kentis and writer Laura Lau hit all the appropriate points – giving us clues as to Sarah’s (Olsen) relationship with her father and Uncle, hinting at some potential instability, tossing in reasons why she might freak out right away instead of handling things more maturely – it just doesn’t stick. Because, unfortunately, it’s built around it’s “one take” gimmick, which doesn’t add to the film. Used here it just prevented me from establishing any spatial awareness of the house (which is important in haunted house flicks), seemed purposefully vague when not showing the bad guys, and the forced limitation made the transition between setup and scares… invisible. Like suddenly we’re in scare mode, and I’m still in gathering details mode. Okay. So the environment started out with a bang, then the execution dragged it down. The eventual reveal is actually handled very well, if it is one of the only 2 or 3 possible outs, with some interesting visuals and impressive now-you-see-it now-you-dont’s. This, plus Olsen’s excellent grappling of this multi-faceted character, bump it up toward the end. But the 80 minute drag to get there is a bit of a stop and go ordeal.