Casa Silencio

Another movie made by redoing a foreign film (I thought I was watching the foreign version, but nope, in English). This is a tense near horror thriller that turns very dark (which is saying something).

Sarah and her dad are clearing out an old house in the middle of nowhere for selling. Only there is someone else in the house, and he doesn't want to leave... and I won't say more than that (partially because for most of the movie, there isn't more, and then there is the bit where everything would be spoiled if I said more).

There was one continuity error in particular that really bugged me, that happened right near the beginning of the film. When the revelations started happening, I thought that maybe this was a part of it, but then... I'm not really sure now what we saw and what we didn't see happen. Very annoying. Still, this is not a subject matter lightly treated, and I wonder how much Laura Lau brought to it.

With only six cast members, there's a lot of room for people to shin, and Elisabeth Olsen gets the lion share, and does a decent job, although there is a lot of weeping and crying involved. The central conceit of the movie is that it is filmed in one take. And indeed, it looks that way... unless you know where there might be cuts, and if they didn't get the continuity of the blood on the shirt wrong, in which case 'there's a cut... and there's one... and there...'. Mostly well done for all that, and leading to some nice in camera effects.

Nicely atmospheric build up, which we do not get often, so check it out for that, but there are trigger warnings here.

[END]