Thanks for the memories!

Nice effects though.

A lot of fun.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Elizabeth Olsen was fantastic in this otherwise awful student film. The acting from her uncle and father was so horrendous it made me physically wince. Luckily they don't seem to have been cast in anything since, thank the Lord! It was actually a great idea for a horror film, but the 'acting' and painful writing made me turn it off half way through. For example, Olsen's character finally escapes the house with her father dead inside, and after jumping into her uncle's car and explaining that her dad is dead(!), all he keeps asking is 'In the house?', 'He's in the house?', 'What, back at the house?' - YES! In the house! Why is that important right now?! This was the point I decided to bail out. Truly truly awful!

Silent House is another one of 'those' films. It combines several clichés that I've come to know with more recent horror movies and it executes them quite well. Does it start out with the stars of the movie? Absolutely – and they're talking about Facebook of all things; I really am starting to wonder if Facebook even belongs in talking about - anything- in horror movies. I'm sure it's meant to help perpetuate interpersonal relations and show status between characters; but there is something 'bland' when it comes to using Facebook as a plot device.Anyway, these two characters are joined by a third – they're inspecting a house that has mold issues. Naturally this is foreshadowing towards a bigger plot induced simply by inhaling right? Not at all – scenes shown are exactly what they are meant to be – this is an exploitation flick. Not only does the movie play in several different directions – it has the main female lead constantly fidgeting, getting spooked out of her mind, or simply screaming; she also whimpers. The movie does have the classic violin music in the background; it is played to effect and it also has those familiar plucks for pitch. The music is largely what gives this movie atmosphere – scenes which would otherwise look no different than fishing for a tool during a blackout – suddenly come to life. However, without the violin music, this movie is also downright creepy; what would look like a hallucination due to spores is just that, other scenes of a predator are also present. The movie shifts around so many times though, that it is hard to tell just what is going on, and this is largely one of the downsides. In the end, it is indeed revealed as an exploitation flick, and memories of a girl's past come back to haunt her. The mold in the house probably is played to effect, but the hallucinations lose their effect as the movie plays out. If this movie would have had the woman challenging her own conflicts and predators in this movie, it could have very well been a better story. I do recommend it for the standard scenes which are associated so closely with horror – they clearly knew what to use when making itOriginally posted to Orion Age (http://www.orionphysics.com/?p=5121).

Girl gets locked in a house and finds herself alone amongst family.Interesting, slightly twisted story. The outstanding thing is the lighting - lots of lamps and mirrors, and a truly weird contrast between inside and outside. Even the car-interior lights do something different.The lead actress is good, with excellent decolletage, and the pace is well developed for such a claustrophobic story.The problem I had is that it's a bit earnest in the end - you guess the twist early on, and that's about as twisted as it gets.Overall, not as good as it looks - but it looks great.

If you haven't seen the movie this is based on, tack another point to my vote. If you have, you don't really have to watch this (as I really shouldn't have). Not that it's bad and it does twist a couple of things. Though it keeps the whole "shot in one take" appeal, even if it actually wasn't shot in one take, but rather a lot of longer shots. Which is still quite a task (so technically speaking this was quite an "exercise", if you wanna call it that).Olson seems to be quite fond of genre pictures or at least starring in them. She updated recently of course to the Blockbuster kind (also see Old Boy remake and Godzilla remake ... remakes seem to be her thing too come to think of it). She does a nice enough job here, especially considering some of the flaws this has, but also the emotional ride her character takes ...