The Silent House

All filmed in one continuous shot!

Lover: Taken from IMDB
“From its first scene, La Casa Muda establishes an excellent atmosphere of horror and anguish thanks to the rural locations and the efficient "hand-held" work which brings it a semi-documentary style and makes us to "live" the characters' point of view in order to experiment the horror. And during the second scene...one moment...There is no second scene! The whole movie was filmed in a long continuous take (supposedly), something which might be a bit baffling on the beginning. But I could immediately "get into" the screenplay, and that became into an essential factor in order to emphasize the suspense which was achieved this modest horror film, which might not be great, but which kept me very interested and entertained.”

Modest is a key word when thinking about this film, a good review for an effective horror.

Hater: Taken from IMDB
“The movie sucks, no scares and no one is confusing! I do not recommend that attended, because, frankly, it was a waste of time my 10 minutes that I'm even spending for comment on the feeling I had when watching a movie as bad as this! At no moment in the film he scares you. and you expect to jump from his chair with that movie, sleeping is better, who knows, you take a trip dreaming! Good movie is "The Grudge" (just watched the two, still have not watched the three). You'll jump! Another good movie that does not alarm, but it is a terror that gives you chills, with Jack Nicholson's "The Shining" (1980). These movies are so great! Another I recommend is "Misery"(1990). All these, I'm sure, who have not watched, will enjoy! Note: 1/10”

Comparing it to The Shining and Misery is massively unfair and unfounded. The fact they make no real point about why they thought it “sucked” speaks volumes.

What I thought:
I’ll talk about the technical achievements first, The Silent House as you may have already guessed was filmed in one continuous tracking shot. When normal movies shout action it could just be for a couple of minutes maybe even less, this film did away with it and what strikes you first is just how much of a logistical nightmare that would have been! For this reason alone The Silent House is a technical work of genius, luckily its actually very creepy.

Because of the nature of the shoot the passage of time may be a bit of an issue for some people, personally I think it made it feel more real that you were really in it with them. The camera following the action frustratingly doesn’t always follow your eye line, again this might be frustrating for some people but I like it. I’ve always been a firm believer in What you don’t see is more scary and by these standards I’m loving this film. One scene in particular using just a Polaroid camera to light up a pitch black room is excellently uncomfortable, the scares equally so!

The film is not without its faults and as predicted it’s the sacrifices they made for the continuous shoot. Certain parts seem to drag further than is necessary, without the breathing space of cutting; the pace of the film is a little muddled. Another thing it loses is time for exposition, this means trying to piece together what’s happening with only little clues. You may get what’s been happening in ‘The Silent House’ but I was a little baffled.

So there you have it, a technical tour de force with some incredibly effective creepy moments and scares. It is only dragged down by its biggest selling point with little or no time for anything else it might be hard to swallow for some.