Tags
Abel Tripaldi, Drama, Florencia Colucci, Gustavo Alonso, Horror, Movie, Suspense, The Silent House
heeeerre moths...c'mon...c'mere moths...
This movie is in Spanish, with English subtitles.
R?
Florencia Colucci, Abel Tripaldi, Gustavo Alonso
Laura: Smile… SMILE!
Laura (Colucci) and her father, Wilson (Alonso), plan to fix up their old home in order to sell it. Shortly after arriving there in the evening, Laura begins to hear noises. Her father goes upstairs to investigate…and then things get scary.
If you’ve read my blog closely over the years, you’ll know that I have a great fondness for Alfred Hitchcock movies, and for those who try to create a tone in their movies that is reminiscent of Hitchcock. So, when I heard that the interesting thing (or gimmick) about this movie was that it was filmed “in one continuous shot”, like Hitchcock’s Rope was meant to seem to be filmed, I was intrigued.
Unfortunately, there’s not much to this one beyond that gimmick. And like Rope, I’m sure this movie wasn’t actually filmed all in one shot either. I haven’t researched that to back up that claim, but there are pretty clear moments where easy edits could be made.
Still, it’s an interesting way to film a movie. It’s like having your cake and eating it too, in that you can give it a first person, Blair Witch type feel, while also having music and artsy cinematography. It does make you feel like you’re along for the ride with Laura as she creeps around the dark, creaky house. But, that also presents a problem, as you start to learn why editing can play such an important role in a movie. Usually you’ll see somebody start to walk up stairs, then we cut to the top of the stairs as the character reaches the top. Not here. In this movie we follow Laura up every step…around every corner…through every door…around every room. And it grows tiresome.
It grew even more tiresome when, about halfway through, I figured out exactly where the movie was taking me. At that point, the stuff that is supposed to be tension building just becomes tedious. Really, there’s only one good scare in the movie, and it’s during another call back to a Hitchcock scene. This time it’s an homage to the finale of Rear Window.
There just wasn’t enough original content in this one. It’s well made, and well acted, but aside from the continuous shot idea, everything seems recycled from other movies. If you’re not going to have anything new, at least try to make the old stuff more exciting.
Just don’t go into old, spooky houses with no electricity.
10 – 2.2 for being so tedious at times – 2 for lack of originality + .1 for the Hitchcock influences = 5.9
The Robot Who Likes Pretty Things 