Silent House (2011)★★★★★

Okay, if you are into scaring yourself, I strongly recommend watching this movie alone, in the dark, on an otherwise quiet night. If that doesn’t work, well, I guess I’m easier to scare than you are, but it should still make for an enjoyable experience.

That said, it is kind of hard to rate. As you may remember, I mentioned earlier that I couldn’t believe I hadn’t reviewed this already, especially since I’ve rewatched it many times since and I liked it so much the first time…and I’m giving it a full five stars primarily based on what I remember of my very first viewing of this.

I remember definitely finding it tense and terrifying. I remember immediately falling in love with Elizabeth Olsen after her performance in this. And I remember a bit of being confused and counfounded? There’s a good bit of ambiguity in the story, especially on a first watch-through, so this movie does require a good bit of your attention.

The good news is, I found it pretty captivating, so paying attention was easy. And it’s under 90 minutes, which also helps.

Now, after many rewatches, I can admit that it’s probably not overall a five-star movie. The dialogue gets pretty stilted and almost none of the character interactions feel real (without getting too spoiler-y, I’ll concede that this could have been largely intentional). The shaky camera heightens the tension some, but can also be a bit disorienting, and not in a “part-of-the-experience” kind of way.

But damn if I didn’t believe Elizabeth Olsen was terrified and damn if it didn’t get to me pretty good that first time around.