Review of The Silent House (2010) by Kisaan T — 05 Apr 2012

La Casa Muda (The Silent House) starts very calmly introducing us to its lead(s) and then doesn't straightly descends into starting the scaring tactics. It also is a tidbit approach of an innovative effort and a careful handling by director - Gustavo Hernandez - although the scare-usp of the film being old classical one of the empty desolated houses, mansions and/ or cottages. Yes it is presented in a single-continous-shot (as written on the teaser posters of the film). From the movment camera fades in there are (almost) no cuts or too much edits.

Arriving onto anempty and (probably) haunted places can causes only few possibilites to the protagonists like - they're visitors, or they have been assigned a job to the place, they own the place etc...Hear the cause is that Laura and her father - Wilson wish to repair the cottage - which is owned by Nestor - who willing to sell the house. Now naturally (as we've been watching since the days of Count Orlok and prince Vlad) they start having haunting - paranormal experiences (which we've already seen plenty of times) including a series of different unsual noises striking now and then, a crow flying by suddenly (cliched). And what could be the most feary place in such a house - then its upper floor. It feels like a challenge for Laura when she has to climb the upper floor to find out the reason for the noises and before that it becomes more of a challenge because a tragedy striking her - which you can see the film to find out. What separates this film's scary techniques is the way the director (and others with him) has handled the camera(s) - in their supposedly decided - continuous shot throughout the film. Personally I liked one scene from the movie. This scene in which Laura finds herself on the upper floor without any 'lights On' and in a complete black. She uses a Polariod Instant Camera's flash light to see something then the black. And in between each flashes a projection of a little girl dressed in white and loose in hair (which has been a common tool used by horror-film makers, the another most common being a fair-white woman dressed in a black funeral-like gown). This scene interests those (from the audiences) who are searching for the reason of the hauntings. But as the film beings to conclude all that anticipation (that the reason must be something big and that our protagonist lady will have to try hard to be free from the shadow-grasp) is lost. Then the film becomes an story of the perpetrator itself which means the whole film was just a killer's vision. Then we (at least I) start to find out the logics and mistakes (if any) there were in the previous minutes of the film. But as the film shows its epilogue - which has a tint of genuine and justifiable reasoning for the killer's deadly cravings - I felt not like finding the mistakes. It is also the last sequence of the film by which I think this one got the recognition in the arrays of art-house 'features' and going to premiere in festivals like Cannes and being selected as Uruguay's entry for foreign language - into the Academy Awards. Though as a casual movie goer (if you are) you feel something still empty in the film. So watch it once only if you have been watching Horror films (not because it is ultra-Gory) but because of its less satisfying conclusion after an anticipating sequences of scares. The reason why it's makers chose to be the way it is written and presented because (they say) it was based on a true story. But even if it was a true story there would have been a media coverage during that moment and that time which must be sufficient for eye-opening few or may be many about the incident. Once I think you decided to make a horror film it has to be entertaining in its way - which is here the fear - and which it does better - but not that good. They would have made a documentary on the incident - if it was true. But since they haven't the prime aspect of it becomes entertainment to the audience and even (very important) it has to ooze on the audiences' hearts after terrifying them. The conclusion should have been a little more justifying for a horror film - then giving only a sip of it to the audiences. Still anyone can praise and many might have praised the director and his way of representing it. So it is a well-developed well-presented strictly a one time watch for those you would like to.