Silent House

Now that I'm such a close acquaintance of Elizabeth Olsen, I thought I'd Netflix some of her other roles. She's best known (other than being the sister of Mary-Kate and Ashley) for Martha Marcy May Marlene, but has made a few other films. Like many young actresses on the come, she has done an obligatory horror film.

Silent House, directed by Chris Kentis and Laura Lau, is one of those single-setting films that are beloved by bottom-line producers. It is also told in real time, with the suggestion that it is a single take (like Hitchcock's Rope, it is not really one take, but manipulated to seem like one).

Olsen plays a young woman who is helping her father and uncle renovate a house, which of course is old and creaky. We are told that there has been a problem with squatters, so when Olsen hears a noise the father goes to investigate and ends up knocked out cold. The film then follows her as she eludes the attackers, and of course the ending has a twist.

Silent House, as an exercise in style, is kind of interesting, as not only is it a single take, and shot only with natural light, but it's all from Olsen's point of view (usually a hand-held camera behind her). As a story, it's weak, as there's no particular rhyme or reason to what she does, and the ending is convoluted and unconvincing.

Hopefully Olsen is done with this sort of film, and will move on to bigger and better things.