Mikes Film Talk

This 2011 remake; Silent House, has all the subtlety of a brick in the face. It is a complete waste of time. In the rush to adapt the first movie, filmmakers lost everything.

I only just watched the original version of this film the other day. A Spanish Uruguayan film shot on the Canon EOS 5D Mark II camera. is the first horror film to shot on a professional photographic camera. Filmmaker claim it is a a ‘continuous’ take film for the 88 minute duration of the movie. Critics have pointed out that this is not possible as the camera has a 15 minute limit on filming.

Despite these claims/counterclaims on the continuity of the filming process, La Casa Muda is a brilliant little low-budget film. This delivers more than adequately. Unfortunately despite an increased budget and a ‘name’ star (Elizabeth Olsen) the remake has lost a great deal in translation. The original has a subtle style. The remake is as subtle as getting hit in the face by a brick.

Co-Directors  Chris Kentis and  Laura Lau adapted the screenplay after watching the original film. They opted to not read the screenplay. This adaptation of the superior original has lost all the nuances and the surprise ending of the first film.

Silent House Story

The plots of both start off virtually the same. A young girls uncle asks her and her father to help clean the family summer home for re-sale. That is the only part of the film that stays the same. The moment they step into the house, new elements are included in the film.

They find some sort of toxic (?) mold in the kitchen. The uncle and the father assume that it has spread throughout the house. Daddy tells Sarah (Olsen) to stay well back so that she does not breathe in any of the spores. I don’t know whether this was an attempt to introduce another plot device into the story. It did have the feel of a possible explanation of what happens next.

It was a complete waste of time.

Her dad and uncle are searching for mold in the rest of the house. Meanwhile, Sarah hears a knocking on the front door. She opens it and sees a girl of her own age on the porch. The girl is Sophia. Julia Taylor Ross plays the long lost friend. She rushes to hug Sarah Sophia tells her how much she has missed her. Sarah reveals that she doesn’t really remember Sophia that well, Sophia makes a ‘date’ to come over later and reminisce.

Sarah’s uncle goes into town for more tools leaving her and dad to start cleaning the house. Sarah hears a noise upstairs and dad volunteers to investigate. Sarah joins him and they go through the first floor together. In one room there are a few Polaroid instant photographs that dad hurriedly stuffs into his pockets. When Sarah asks about them he says they are of the mold damage.

Abuse and Incest

Almost from the first frame, the directors have chosen to play the child abuse and incest card. Even before the scenes where Sarah has ‘flashbacks’ to events from her childhood, they have signposts the way.

The fact that the two male figures bring in the Polaroid Instamatic hurts the film. The camera is found in the original film. This, combined with all the  Polaroid photo’s lying around, screams “naughty” pictures.  This and that both the men can’t hide them quick enough. The men scramble to get rid of the evidence . j

We finally get to the part where Sarah starts remembering. She learns what happened to her in the house at the hands of her dad and uncle. There are no surprises left. The story is signposted far too well. In the original film it was one hell of a shock. Well, to me anyway. I did not see it coming until the character found it out herself at the end of the film.

Quality

Another major complaint with the re-make is the quality of the film. It was publicized that the re-made version was using the exact same filming equipment that was used on the original. Kudos to them for experimenting with the digital medium. However, the remake has nowhere near the crisp quality of the original.

The film is blurry feels so out of focus. So much so that I began to wish for glasses one third of the way in. Sure it helped to make the movie a bit more disturbing,. Honestly, though, an elephant could have been stalking Olsen around the house. You would not have been able to see it. And I was watching a Blu-ray copy.

For all the speed that went into getting the re-make, I really expected a better film. It is, in my honest opinion, a true waste of Elizabeth Olsen’s talent. Almost an insult to the original, more superior film.

The Verdict

Silent House earns an abysmal 2 stars. The remake is an abject waste of time. I would highly recommend seeing the original The Silent House and bypassing this rubbish. Unless of course you are a huge Olsen fan and you can’t bear to miss a film she’s in. Olsen rocks in this role but the story and the manner it is done in does her a massive injustice.

I can only despair over the amount of HD film cards that had to give their lives for this project. It is streaming on Tubi, Plex, Roku, et al.

The Trailer