Silent House (2011)

Genre:  Psychological, Slasher
Director:  Chris Kentis, Laura Lau
Country:  United States
Availability:  Amazon On Demand; DVD; Redbox (soon)

The original  Uruguayan The Silent House has been on my radar for a while, and yet I just haven't gotten around to seeing it. So when it was announced that the movie, which was barely a year old, was being remade in America, I sighed and said, "Noooooo!". While there have been some terrific American horror movies remade by Americans (Dawn of the Dead; Texas Chainsaw Massacre; The Crazies; The Fly; Fright Night; The Thing), there have also been some really atrocious ones too (The Omen; A Nightmare on Elm Street; My Bloody Valentine; Prom Night; The Amityville Horror). We especially don't deal well with turning great foreign horror movies into great American horror movies. We have a tendency to like our movies to have a happy ending, we like things a little more polished, a little more easy to swallow. So when you have movies from France or Germany or Japan, countries who really know how to make a fucked up horror movie, we get our hands on them and... well, it's like when people say "make love" when they really mean "fucking".

Though being a connoisseur of the horror genre I don't really discriminate. I see them all. I do however try to watch the original material first, followed by the remake. There's a sense of order that I feel I must maintain in order to be properly objective. It's rare that I will watch a remake first and in fact most of those occurrences happen when I'm watching a movie that was remade from a movie from the '40s or '50s, like The Fly or The Thing or The Blob (all remakes). At any rate, it's not a hard-and-fast rule so there are times when I falter, and this was one such time.

Netflix and other sites have referred to Silent House as a "thriller". After seeing the movie I'd say that Silent House is no more a "thriller" than say, The Strangers, which is labeled "horror" (and is also a remake!). And while Silent House is certainly thrilling, it has all of the markers of a horror movie.

I'm not sure how this movie stacks up against the original, but I will say that as a stand-alone horror movie, it's quite good. Elizabeth Olson packs a punch as the jumpy, terrified and overwrought daughter. The house plays it own role in the movie, which ultimately, may have been the most important part of all. It's rare that you can make an environment huge and maze-like and also claustrophobic at the same time. With all of the locked doors and boarded windows and lack of power you feel helpless and trapped, even when what you're afraid of is vague and elusive.

One of the most entertaining elements of Silent House was the mystery of it all. When the pieces start to fall together and you begin to suspect a larger story than what's initially being presented you get to play the fun Maybe game. Maybe it's a ghost! Maybe it's the Uncle! Maybe she's crazy! Maybe there's a giant squid from Mars and it totally loves to play the "Im in ur house, makin u scream" game! Ah giant squids. Good times.

Now, on to see the original! Which has a "The" in front of "Silent House", just so we know the difference.

4 out of 5 stars