Review of The Silent House (2010) by Mark G — 01 Jul 2012

Well, the selling point for this movie is the fact that it is supposedly filmed in only a single shot, but to be honest I am sceptical of that statement.

Yes the majority of it is done in a single shot and there are some clever camera moves like where the camera passes through an open car door and out the open window on the other side which presumably means that the camera had to be passed from one person to another in a seamless movement.

There are however moments when the camera passes an object and there is a black frame to seperate the shot and of course there's a sequence that is entirely in darkness. Those moments in conjunction with the number of whip-pans gives plenty of opporunity to have broken up the shot but still make it look seamless.

Not that it really matters as this is a (supposedly) psychological horror that failed to have any moments of tension or horror.

For the films runtime of just over 80 minutes, you will probably spend nearly an hour of that watching the character of Laura looking aroundthe house with a lantern.

That's a long time to spend watching somebody peering into corners and rubbish piles.

Added to that, the characters are blank slates with nothing known about them and combined with the films minimal dialogue (that would be the Silent part of the title, I guess) and the lack of time spent building them, that leaves no reason to care about them.

Going back to the business with the camera set-up. As well as the supposed continuous shot, the filmakers are also trying to be too clever in other respects.

I lost track of the amount of time we saw things happening from a reflection in a mirror.

And watching the reflection of someone peering through a dark house isn't that entertaining.

Worth watching for the curiosity of the camera work, but nothing worth returning to and watching again due to its lack of suspense, dull characters and lack of an interesting story.