Silent House

★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆ After her father is knocked unconscious by a malevolent and mysterious intruder, a young woman discovers she is locked in her family's summer home and must escape from what proves to be a terrifying ordeal in the new film Silent House. What progresses as a seemingly conventional horror house story where the evil that besets Sarah may prove to be either psychopathological or demonic, surprisingly transforms in the final act into an art house psychological thriller with a twist ending that may disappoint, even anger, some. Chris Kentis and Laura Lau, the husband-wife team who brought us 2003's Open Water based their story on the Urugayan film The Silent House which was shown at Director's Fortnight in Cannes 2009. One of the film's selling points is that it appears to the naked eye to be one continuous unbroken 88 minute shot. This is of course not true, the filmakers have admitted as much, and a trained cinephile's eye can detect the seams at different points in the film. What is, however, truly remarkable about this effort is Elizabeth Olsen's Sarah. As we join her in her ordeal in seemingly real time, we truly appreciate the wide-eyed fear and raw terror conveyed by her extraordinarily visceral performance.