Silent House - 2012

Skinfull

Silent House

Trapped inside her family's lakeside retreat, a young woman finds she is unable to contact the outside world as events become increasingly ominous in and around the house.

Went to see this today on the back of it being a haunted house kind of scenario, knew little else about it. For the first hour it was very tense, quite frightening and real edge of the seat stuff. But then it took a turn that left me feeling cheated. It felt like a cop out ending to me.

The movie is shown with what appears to be a single shot, though I counted two instances where it could have been cut, still though, very impressive. The lead, Elizabeth Olsen, of Martha Macy May Marlene was top of her game, though her character was a mewling wimp who seemed to have no real instinct for survival! However the father and uncle were both wooden, and forced and seemed very aware of the pressure of a single shot, if you know what I mean!

The turning point was where she realised this was the hosue where she was abused as a child, by her father and uncle. And though it was telegraphed in the first 2 mins of the opening sequence, by the uncles leering lingering gaze, and throughout by dodgy shifty Father & Uncle behaviour it was revealed towards the end with little or no "oomph" and then dragged out for too long lessening the impact. Also this was the point when up to 8 people walked out of the cinema!

It wasn't awful, but I dunno if Id like to recommend any of you actually give up time and go see it.

Also seemingly this is a remake.

Goldstein

Skinfull wrote: »

Also seemingly this is a remake.

No seemingly about it. Shot for shot of the Uruguayan film La Casa Muda which I thought was reasonably good but a bit streched and repetitive. I found it facinating observing the long takes in the original though - And it is takes - some convienient all black moments - but nonetheless very impressive work and improvisation on display from the lead actress and cameraman. It wasn't just any camera either, it was made purely using a DSLR - Canon's 5D Mk II - no mean feat.

ziedth

Off topic but has a film with a cinematic release ever been filmed in a single shot?

Goldstein

ziedth wrote: »

Off topic but has a film with a cinematic release ever been filmed in a single shot?

Russian Ark is one I know of. Haven't seen it myself yet but it's on my to watch list.

johnny_ultimate

I don't think Russian Ark was one shot, but rather one take with multiple cameras. Open to correction on that. EDIT: and wikipedia has corrected me on that. My mistake.

Hitchock's Rope pretends to be one shot, although the 'cuts' are obviously there when the camera conveniently zooms into a dark space for a few seconds. Good film though.

Ant

I just saw this tonight. I should've checked this forum first as having seen it, I fully agree with Skinfull's assessment.

While I didn't like the small depth of field used in many of the shots and the very distracting shaky camera-work during the outdoor sequences, I was well impressed with the way they filmed the scenes to appear as one take. The film-makers (particularly Elizabeth Olsen) did a very good job of building up the tension but the film was ultimately a let-down and as a whole, it left me feeling unsatisfied. If someone wants to see horror in the cinema, I'd recommend they go see Cabin in the Woods (again).