Starring Elizabeth Olsen, Adam Trese and Eric Sheffer Stevens Directed by Chris Kentis and Laura Lau Written by Laura Lau
Horror movie hucksterism didn’t die out with William Castle, but it did lose a
chunk of its joie de vivre. The real-time experience promised by Silent House isn’t as cool as the possibility of being electrocuted – or, at least, startled – by your own movie seat, but it’s something, and filmmakers Chris Kentis and Laura Lau (who chucked their actors in with live sharks for 2003’s Open Water) pull off the single, uninterrupted-shot gimmick with surprising effectiveness for most of the film’s 86-minute running time. Ultimately, though, this House is built on a shaky founda- tion, and a clumsy ending brings it crashing down. Based on 2010’s La Casa Muda, widely con-
sidered to be the best, um, Uruguayan single- take haunted-house movie ever made, Silent House follows Sarah (Elizabeth Olsen), a fragile young woman who travels to her family’s vaca- tion house to help her dickish father get it ready to sell. From the beginning, it’s clear that all is not right with the place – or, for that matter, with Sarah herself. She has no memory of the child- hood friend who shows up for a visit, and her relationships with her father and her Uncle Peter, who stops by to lend a hand, just feel off.
Before long, Sarah’s dad is attacked by an unseen assailant, and the girl is trapped in the house with no protector and no means of escape. What follows is a dizzying and unnerving game of hide-and-seek that finds Sarah alternately running and stowing away from the mysterious home invaders. The middle chunk of the movie is undeniably creepy and there’s some genuine
elegance in the cinematography, which involved passing the camera from one op- erator to the next to achieve the film’s allegedly uninterrupted shot. But the real star of the show is, well, the star of the show. Thanks to the film’s single take con- ceit (or, cynically, handful of really long takes and cleverly concealed cuts), Olsen gets to do some old-fashioned stage acting, and she’s terrific. It’s too bad that she’s overshadowed by the rickety ending that jettisons the ambiguity of the orig- inal film and spells everything out in a painfully contrived way. Buyer beware. APRIL SNELLINGS
DREAM HOUSE
Starring Daniel Craig, Naomi Watts and Rachel Weisz Directed by Jim Sheridan Written by David Loucka
A-list talent doesn’t necessarily equal good movie. Despite being directed by a
six-time Academy Award nominee and boasting a star-studded cast, Dream House is easily one of 2011’s worst big-screen genre pictures; a horrible mess from front door to back porch. Jim Sheridan (My Left Foot) helms this story of aspiring author Will Atenton (an
often shirtless Daniel Craig), who leaves his day job as an editor to write the next great novel and spend more time with his beautiful wife (real-life partner Rachel Weisz) and two angelic daughters in their seemingly perfect new house. Cue the strange events. A shadowy figure watches the residence at night; a group of punks are found performing rituals in the basement; and someone tries to run Will over with a car. The cops seem to know something but they aren’t talking, and neither is the hot blonde neigh- bour (Naomi Watts). Will investigates, and discovers that a bru-
tal murder once took place in his home, at the hands of someone named Peter Ward. After more sleuthing, Will finds out that Peter is in fact – get ready for it – himself! Of course he is. I mean, this sort of things hap- pens all the time so why shouldn’t it be a plot device in every thriller nowadays? Of course, this obvious twist would be more effective if it didn’t happen at the film’s halfway point. After Will is revealed to be an insane killer and his perfect family just a figment constructed from his victims’ memories, Dream House descends into a confusing, nonsensical series of “is it real or fantasy?” set pieces, eventually settling on a cheesy, out-of-place action-packed finale. One can only surmise that someone saw Shutter Island and figured they could
throw another all-star cast into the same narrative device and ride it safely to the bank. However, not only did Dream House – which borrows liberally from the South Korean film A Tale of Two Sisters – bomb, the cast and crew were reportedly so pissed with the studio’s final cut that they refused to do any promotion, and Sheridan even petitioned to have his name taken off of it. Not a wise investment. AARON VON LUPTON