Silent House is a horror flick with a gimmick. Whereas Paranormal Activity and its ilk wanted you to believe they're real footage, the catch here is that the events within are supposed to have been shot in real-time. This isn't true, as the makers filmed in ten minute blocks and edited it together later, but they've certainly tried to push it to the forefront as a drawing card. It's a novel idea, one that's been used sparingly in the past with Hitchcock's amazing 1948 effort Rope and the dopey Johnny Depp thriller Nick of Time springing to mind, but it doesn't really add anything to the movie other than having characters do mundane things usually spared us in "normal" films.

Elizabeth Olsen plays Sarah, your seemingly typical teenager who's at her families rarely used lake house for the weekend with her father (Adam Trese) and Uncle Peter (Eric Sheffer Stevens) to try and fix it up a little bit. It's a rundown place where the electricity isn't working due to faulty wiring and the windows have been boarded up thanks to delinquents smashing the windows. This is good for us because it also makes it the prime location for a horror movie.

Not long after watching her relatives playfully argue, meeting a local girl who used to be her friend as a child, and generally just wandering about; Sarah soon starts hearing strange noises and doors slam by themselves. Things begin to escalate from there as dad goes missing and it becomes apparent there's somebody in the house. Adding to her escalating panic, it also looks like she can't get out as the windows, as mentioned, are blocked and the doors locked tight. This gives co-directors Chris Kentis and Laura Lau plenty of opportunity for minimalist scare attempts as they take a stripped down approach having Olsen reacting to various noises and sudden movements, a pretty good (if overdone) shot of someone standing in a doorway in the background while she roots around in kitchen drawers, and lots of scenes shot in a jittery, out-of-focus style.

Seeing as most of the film's running time consists of Sarah freaking out and us wondering just what the hell is going on (thank you muddled script!), things get even more sketchy when the plot takes a complete u-turn in the final third by trying to throw in a disturbing twist that, at least in my eyes, not only drags the film away from its initial purpose, but just didn't sit well with me. It's an attempt to instill some true "human evil" to things but it's not executed well enough.

Given that the camera is fully trained of her for almost the entire 85 minute running time, Olsen, the younger sister of the twins you came to dislike on "Full House" and in various other television appearances, makes a lot of Silent House's flaws worth sitting through. This being her first film, and the fact she'd follow it with a top-notch turn in Martha Marcy May Marlene, she's quite convincing looking frightened. Her supporting cast does what is expected of them in their brief screen time, but this is Olsen's show all the way.

Considering that their previous film before this was Open Water, there's no questioning that the married filmmaking team of Kentis and Lau like to challenge themselves and try to do things in an unconventional way. For that film they plunked themselves and their cast in the middle of the ocean and, while those risks aren't on hand here, the fact they've attempted the whole real-time shtick does deserve some credit - it's just too bad that the script (by Lau) struggles so much with coherency and trying to be socially relevant.

There are a few bright spots in Silent House thanks to a few well-staged shots and Olsen's strong performance, but all that is defeated by a whole lot of heavy-handedness. It did, however, make me curious to see the 2010 Spanish flick, La casa muda, this was based on. (Chris Hartley, 10/16/12)

Directed By: Chris Kentis, Laura Lau.
Written By: Laura Lau.

Starring: Elizabeth Olsen, Adam Trese, Eric Sheffer Stevens, Julia Taylor Ross.