I have been wanting to watch this film for a long time and finally got to it the other day. I thought it was just going to be ghost story type film or something like Paranormal Activity but it turned out to be something very unexpected!
It had a lot of suspense despite its shortcomings. It gets a bit old as the majority of the film is just Elizabeth Olsen’s character Sara wandering through a scary house. Elizabeth does a good job at being scared and crying her eyes out over these scary sounds though! There are times it feels very Blairwitch Project. The film is shot entirely with a subjective camera, always at arm’s length of the character. There is even a scene near the end common in this type of film, where the girl using a camera, snaps a series of pictures that momentarily light up the dark attic. It just feels so low budget that you feel like someone made it for a school film project or something, because of this you can’t really get lost in the movie.
Although the ending was out of left field, I liked this twist and thought it added to the film. The problem with it though was that it wasn’t executing properly and the overall storyline had too many holes in it. It needed more too it, more flashbacks - something. After doing a bit of research on the film I found that is was actually a remake of a Spanish film of the same name and that it was based on a true story. Not sure if that movie delved into the back story more or not…
All in all it was a film that could have been really great, but too many things made it feel like someone just took a camera and tried to create a movie over the weekend at their cabin.
Review by Breakaway MagazineBlockedParent2013-04-01T21:35:27Z
SILENT HOUSE KEEPS THINGS A LITTLE TOO QUIET…
I have been wanting to watch this film for a long time and finally got to it the other day. I thought it was just going to be ghost story type film or something like Paranormal Activity but it turned out to be something very unexpected!
It had a lot of suspense despite its shortcomings. It gets a bit old as the majority of the film is just Elizabeth Olsen’s character Sara wandering through a scary house. Elizabeth does a good job at being scared and crying her eyes out over these scary sounds though! There are times it feels very Blairwitch Project. The film is shot entirely with a subjective camera, always at arm’s length of the character. There is even a scene near the end common in this type of film, where the girl using a camera, snaps a series of pictures that momentarily light up the dark attic. It just feels so low budget that you feel like someone made it for a school film project or something, because of this you can’t really get lost in the movie.
Although the ending was out of left field, I liked this twist and thought it added to the film. The problem with it though was that it wasn’t executing properly and the overall storyline had too many holes in it. It needed more too it, more flashbacks - something. After doing a bit of research on the film I found that is was actually a remake of a Spanish film of the same name and that it was based on a true story. Not sure if that movie delved into the back story more or not…
All in all it was a film that could have been really great, but too many things made it feel like someone just took a camera and tried to create a movie over the weekend at their cabin.
MEH, 5/10
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