Silent House

I've noticed a pattern in horror movies these days; a failure to provide a solid conclusion. A lot of them keep my interest until the very end where everything just goes straight to Hell. I'm not sure if these movies end this way because of an overzealous attempt to be tricky and surprise the audience or if that particular ending was just the only rabbit in the director's hat. This happens to be the scenario with Silent House, a movie which could have a stronger finish to match the rest of it.

Silent House has a pretty simple premise. Sarah (Elizabeth Olsen) is working with her father and her uncle on fixing up their old house in order to sell it. On this day, soon after starting their work, Sarah begins to feel like something just...isn't right. Starting with an odd conversation with an old friend (Julia Taylor Ross), after which soon not being able to locate her father in the house, to finally, realizing that something bad has happened to him and that they are not alone in the house. Marvelous day for Sarah.

One of the most impressive things about Silent House is the way it's shot. I've read many complaints about how shooting it all in one take became tedious and quite obnoxious to watch, but I actually found it to be quite captivating. It really does feel like you're with Sarah the entire time. When she's hiding from someone, you feel like you're hiding from someone as well. When she's tripping or hitting her head on a pipe, you feel like you're hitting your head on a pipe too. When she's running around with her shirt practically hanging off her tits, you feel like...well, probably not.

Elizabeth Olsen holds her own very well in this movie. Not many actresses could have made this character interesting considering you know very little about her, but Olsen does it quite effectively. She's persuasive in the early scenes before any of the terror occurs and she also proves that she can scream with the best of them. Olsen is a star and performances like this one and Martha Marcy May Marlene (say that 5 times fast) should make sure this girl stays on the map.

Now for my biggest problem with the movie; the previously mentioned conclusion. Now, I'm not a rocket scientist, a plastic surgeon, a lawyer, or any other type of profession where you need to have an IQ above how many fingers you have at all. But if I can spot the ending to a movie a mile away, there's a big problem. Silent House just isn't that surprising. The twist can be seen from outer space so at times you're wishing the movie could keep up with what you have obviously discovered. It just seems like Silent House was on the same wavelength as the kid who just couldn't stop eating the glue. Not only does Silent House's ending reak of predictability, the way it's wrapped up is as if the director ran out of film at the very end. Too many questions are left on the side of the road and you're just left feeling disappointed. Silent House had the potential to be great but a lackluster ending reduced it to just being decent. Shame.

2/4