Silent House (2011)
Directed by Chris Kentis
Sarah returns with her father and uncle to fix up the family's longtime summerhouse after it was violated by squatters in the off-season. As they work in the dark, Sarah begins to hear sounds from within the walls of the boarded-up building. Although she barely remembers the place, Sarah senses the past may still haunt the home.
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What critics compared Silent House to
Like its predecessor, this remake of the 2010 Uruguayan film La casa muda ("The Silent House") bears an unavoidable stylistic similarity to Alfred Hitchock's Rope .
Oh, and the whole business about shooting the film in one long take, à la Hitchcock’s Rope ?
Vigilant viewers will note the seam of at least one on-screen cut in Silent House, but the “single” take is regardless an impressive feat of choreography, the bravura stunt of Hitchcock’s Rope adapted to the greater mobility and footage capacity of digital cameras.
The most famous early experiment in long-take filmmaking was from no less a talent than Alfred Hitchcock, who employed the technique in his 1948 thriller Rope.
The big draw by the filmmakers for “Silent House” is the claim that it is done in one continuous take and, like Alfred Hitchcock’s “Rope,” provides a technically appealing pull for audiences.
Not only is the camerawork overly shaky, but the the fun (and scary) use of limited light is undoubtedly inspired by the Hitchcock classic Rear Window , just as the real-time hook was cribbed from the Hitchcock classic Rope .
The skill and flair required on the part of Mendes and legendary cinematographer Roger Deakins to make this work is undeniable, even if the concept has lost some of its lustre in the wake of Birdman‘s Oscar win and other movies like Silent House, as well as that one episode of Mr Robot on TV.
A Quiet Place is one of those tiresome gimmick-fueled horror movies like 2010’s Buried (Ryan Reynolds in a coffin for 95 minutes) or 2012’s Silent House (the entire feature is a single take of Elizabeth Olsen being menaced).
One starts to think about movies like Fincher’s Panic Room , Silent House (even if it is narratively lacking), and Don’t Breathe .
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Through his own instincts and likely some key “quiet…quiet…bang!” advice from producers Sam Raimi and Robert Tapert, Alvarez knows how to build early tension visually and aurally: just witness a standout sequence that shuts the lights off, allowing “Silent House” DP Pedro Luque to shoot characters in inky night vision, their pupils an empty black dot, while composer Roque Baños’ intense score rumbles in the background.
Working with the brilliant cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki, Iñárritu devises the action to unfold in what appears a single, unbroken shot, a kind of Rope for the digital age—one-upping Hitch, even, by transcending the real-time structure of Rope and later practitioners (like Timecode and Silent House) and weaving in elements of dream logic, magic realism, and theatrical transition to cover several days, with minimal edits and interruptions.
Imaginative indie entries like “Oculus,” “The Babadook,” “Spring,” “Silent House” and “Martha Marcy May Marlene” ditched the usual template of trauma.