"The original wasn't very good, and this isn't very good either..."

One of my biggest gripes with the Hollywood remake is that it makes me feel as though great films aren't entrusted to succeed on their own merits given their foreign language and I always feel that a remake is a mere depreciated version of what has come before. However, due to disliking the Uruguayan horror of the same name I was actually quite anticipating this particular remake of Silent House, as I hoped for an improvement and reimagination, Oh how wrong I was.

Presented as one single continuous shot, Silent House tells the story of Sarah (Elizabeth Olsen), a confident young woman helping her father John (Adam Trese) and uncle Peter (Eric Sheffer Stevens) clear out their old holiday home, at an isolated lakeside retreat.

Following a petty argument between John and Peter, the latter decides to leave for a while leaving his brother and niece alone in the house. With no electricity and windows covered by wooden plates the pair are reliant on torches and hand-held lights to navigate their way around. Already somewhat paranoid, Sarah begins to hear noises coming from upstairs, where she then finds her father lying unconscious on the ground, having evidently been attacked. Suddenly she finds her self trapped in the house all alone and the sounds of people stomping around become unremitting as she desperately searches for a way out of this ominous situation.

Silent House, much like its original, has all the makings of a very traditional and terrifying horror film, taking on a simple premise and finding a unique selling point within its continuous shot. Every horror movie has its own gimmick and there is much you can do with one shot, but this doesn't use it's novelty to any great success. Also, it's not actually shot in one take but in 10 minute segments cut together. In other words it's just a normal movie - and unfortunately for directors Chris Kentis and Laura Lau, not a very good one, as the story makes absolutely no sense whatsoever.

Such issues lie within the film's contrived and perplexing finale. In the original production the ending is the film's biggest downfall, and despite the fact Lau has written in an entirely new ending, she has managed to create one that is equally as ridiculous and confusing, making even less sense than the original.

A good horror movie ending is one that makes the audience go, "oooohhhhhh I get it now" - yet in Silent House the conclusion isn't eluded too at all during the film. However, when a horror movie story is lacking in substance (so often the case) you do look to scarier moments to make up for the lack of narrative, but in this, such moments are few and far between. You just leave the cinema with so many unanswered questions.

On a much more positive note however, Olsen is brilliant as Sarah, captivating her audience and making this film watchable, even if she does spend the majority of the feature under a bed crying. Yet for a character effectively in every single shot she needs to be entrancing to keep out attention and she has something about her on screen where you just can't take your eyes off her - something she carried in Martha Marcy May Marlene too.

Yet her performance aside Silent House is just a generic horror flick, easily forgettable and barely scary - which, unfortunately for the filmmakers, is no doubt the aim. The original Silent House wasn't very good, and this isn't very good either - if you're gonna do a remake of a bad film you have to at least at improve upon it, but sadly this doesn't do that at all.