Review No.134: Silent House

Personally I still have an issue with remakes of foreign films, especially foreign films that have been released in the last few years, as I find the sole reason to do this is so people don't have to bother with those pesky subtitles after all who wants to go to watch a film and have to read? A brilliant example of this is Silent House a remake of a Uruguayan horror film, only released in the UK last year, which basically sees a young woman trapped in a house as mysterious killers finish off members of her family. In case of the US remake the girl in question is Sarah, played by the wonderful Elizabeth Olsen, who is helping her father and uncle clear up an old childhood home in order for them to sell it on. Early on it seems that there are some issues between the brothers namely that Sarah's father tries to stop her uncle Peter from drinking and driving at the same time she also meets an old friend from childhood who she has no recollection of. Sarah then starts to hear noises in the house and when she sends her father to investigate he ends up being thrown down the stairs and she comes to the realisation that there is someone else living there. There is then a lengthy section where the lights are turned off and Sarah has to navigate herself around the house but at every turn finds out that every exit has been blocked while at the same time finds out that someone else has been living in the house. Using an old Polaroid camera to help her see she finally finds her way out of the house before her uncle stupidly drives her back so that they can hopefully find her father's body. As always with horror movies there is a twist however as I had already seen the original foreign language version of this film.

The unique selling point of the original version of Silent House was that events occurred in real time and the film was made with one continuous shot which I think the Americans thought was such a good idea that they were annoyed they hadn't come up with it themselves. As is always the case when they haven't got an original idea they just copy the film that had it in the first place and that's what they've done with Silent House however here director Chris Kentis and Laura Lau have moulded together several different segments of the film in order to make it look like one continuous shot. As I've been down on several horror films so far this year for just employing the very quiet and suddenly loud technique I have to add the same judgment to this film however I feel that on the whole Silent House manages it better. This might be down to Elizabeth Olsen who is by far the film's saving grace as personally I think she did a better job with the character than original actress Florencia Colucci did. Apart from Olsen though this was a very patchy film with lots of shaky handheld camera movements plus I don't think Lau and Kentis utilised the Polaroid camera as much as they could've done. Most people will see the conclusion coming a mile off even if they haven't seen the original version from Uruguay which I didn't much care for in the first place. As I said in my introduction foreign remakes on the whole are a waste of time, especially in the case of Silent House which wasn't a great movie in its original language, and I personally believe that people should learn to embrace subtitles a lot more as it would open their eyes to a new world of cinematic possibilities.

Verdict: A needless remake of an average horror film is bolstered by a performance from Elizabeth Olsen so I will award this one a very generous 4.5/10

Review No.10: Martha Marcy May Marlene

Occasionally you can spot a star-making performance in a film and that's what I feel Elizabeth Olsen delivers in drama Martha Marcy May Marlene. Olsen stars as Martha a young woman who we see escaping from a cult as the film begins we then see two stories run simultaneously as Martha tries to reconnect with her estranged sister and that of how Martha became cult member Marcy May and why she wanted to leave. The latter story sees the emotionally vulnerable Martha being manipulated by the charismatic cult leader Patrick who regularly rapes the new girls that come to his commune and then brainwashes them into believing this is the right thing. In the present day Martha struggles to adjust from her life away from Patrick in her sister's husband's holiday home she is haunted by visions of her past and is constantly nagged at by sister Lucy who wonders where she has been for the past two years. Things come to a head when we finally learn why Martha left the cult and the whole thing ends on an ambiguous note that I found very frustrating.

And that ending would be my biggest criticism of Martha Marcy May Marlene because the rest of it is absolutely captivating stuff. Olsen's turn reminds me of a young but more talented Scarlett Johansson as she lets her facial expressions do the talking for her which is the mark of a good actress. She is able to demonstrate a cavalcade of emotions from unsure to confident to disturbed throughout the film and I personally got the idea that Martha was trapped wherever she was. John Hawkes' Patrick is also a terrifying presence throughout the film he is on one hand very charming but on the other very sinister so even though he's not on screen as much as the actor deserves his small appearances are always met with trepidation. Sarah Paulson and Hugh Dancy also do a good job of playing the stable suburban couple who have been infiltrated by a troublesome relative who generally seems to be a hindrance to their plans of starting a family. The two stories running side by side works perfectly as we the audience aren't really sure what Martha is so terrified off until the final part of the film and we also get the feeling that Martha will never be completely free. While I do appreciate that an ambiguous ending works in some films I thought this should've had some definitive resolution one way or another and that did annoy me as did the off-key score which was overused a little too much for my liking.

Verdict: A strong psychological drama that sticks with you long after it finishes with a great breakout performance from Olsen and therefore deserving of a 8/10