When Sarah (Elizabeth Olsen) arrives at the familys dilapidated Victoria house she at first thinks her and her father are being terrorised by an unknown home invader. As the film progresses and the inexplicable acts become increasingly more intense, it is dramatically revealed that Sara herself is the culprit and is subconsciously acting on her deeply suppressed memories that the return to her childhood home has forced to resurface. Silent House challenges its audience with a fascinating premise is it worse to face an axe-wielding home invader or to deal with the psychological daemons resulting from abuse sustained during your childhood at the hands of your paedophile father? Chris Kentis and Laura La the films directors say the latter quite emphatically. However, while the child abuse angle is considerably darker, for pure horror value the first half of the film where we wrongly assume an unknown assailant is to blame is far scarier. Silent House undertakes the strenuous task of shooting in real-time, using one continuous shot to create the film, much like Alfred Hitchcocks Rope. This pain-staking commitment to film the whole project in real-time no doubt caused endless production difficulties but the end result is an intensely nervy, realistic film where you feel like youre trapped in there with Sarah.
Hailing from South East London, Sam Heard is an aspiring writer and recent graduate from the University of Warwick. Sam's favourite things include energy drinks, late nights spent watching the UFC with his girlfriend and annihilating his friends at FIFA.
