Silent House

Reviews from the Dark Side presents: 
Silent House
Released 3/9/12, now in theaters

My greatest fear in seeing this movie was with as much hype as it was receiving, the movie wouldn't come close to living up to it.  The trailers seemed to hype it as the new standard in terror.  I prayed it wouldn't  be the waste of time that Blair Witch Project and Paranormal Activity was (sorry fans of both movies, but I just didn't get it).  After seeing it, I have to say that it violated the one rule for horror movies; you have to be scary or, at the very least, unsettling.  Maybe horror wasn't what the director and producers were attempting, but it was sure presented that way with the marketing.  This movie is more psychological thriller than horror (a fine line sometimes, I know), so I was left a little disappointed.  However, not all is lost.  The movie does have its merits.

The story focuses on Sarah (Elizabeth Olsen), a young woman assisting her father and uncle in cleaning up the damage done to the family summer cottage by squatters.  Sarah begins to hear noises in the house that hint there is someone or something in the dwelling with her other than relatives.  The deeper she goes into the house, the more she hears and sees things that shouldn't be there.  When she finds her father seriously injured and unconscious, she desperately tries to escape from house.  She manages to get out of the house and encounters her uncle driving up to the cottage.  Despite her begging her uncle to call for help, he is determined to rescue his brother.  Sarah is frightened into following her uncle into the house again.  However, there's one problem.  The father's body has disappeared.  Matters get worse when Sarah's uncle is knocked unconscious and his body disappears.  What is causing this?  Is the house haunted?  Is there a serial killer on the loose?  Why is Sarah seeing a little girl playing with bottles in a bathtub?  Why is blood oozing from the walls? 

The payoff at the end brings everything together nicely.  Characters' actions that don't seem to make sense at first, make a twisted kind of sense later.  I liked the last 15 minutes much better than I liked the rest of the movie which is why I'll give it a somewhat favorable review.  I just wish the audience didn't have to sift through so much minutiae to get to fruity center of the tootsie pop.  The movie was directed by Chris Kentis and Laura Lau of Open Water  fame.

 Elizabeth Olsen does a very credible job of  portraying sheer terror, I'm still a little disappointed this wasn't an actual, true blue horror story as marketed.  Most of the movie is much ado about nothing until the final act.  As a comparison, think of the movie as more Identity than Amityville Horror. 

The Dark Lord of the Sith says:

**1/2 stars

Ratings Legend
Zero *= Don't waste your time. Pure dreck! Dreck is too good for this! Blind me please!
1 *= Fuggedaboutit! 
2 *= Average, Mediocre, Nothing Special
3 *= Good viewing. Much better than a poke in the eye.
4 *= Great. Could possibly foot the price of a non-Matinee. 
5 *= Pure eye candy. Hall of Fame material here.