EXPERIENCE 88 MINUTES OF REAL FEAR
CAPTURED IN REAL TIME
Directed by Chris Kentis & Laura Lau and starring Elizabeth Olsen as Sarah, Adam Trese as John & Eric Sheffer Stevens as Peter. Also stars Julia Taylor Ross as Sophia, Adam Barnett as Stalking Man & Haley Murphy as Little Girl.
A remake of The Silent House (2010). Again, like the original, this was made to look like it was filmed in one continuous take.
Sarah & her father, John, are fixing up their lakeside house in order to sell. Sarah’s uncle, Peter, is lending a hand. Sarah begins to hear noises, her father disappears and she finds herself trapped in the boarded-up house with an unseen stranger.
Now, I really wanted to see this because I love the original and I was curious to see how the remake would turn out. Obviously, having seen the original, I went in thinking I already knew what was going to happen and that was fine by me. At least I’d seen the original first, unlike [Rec] ’07, as I saw the remake, Quarantine ’08, first. Well I wasn’t wrong, this is essentially the same as the original in most respects. There are differences yes, but should you bother with this if you’ve already seen the original? Maybe not, unless like me you’re curious. But if you haven’t seen the original, I’m not so sure.
Is it as good as or better than the original? What can I say? It’s a very good remake. Elizabeth Olsen as Sarah is fine in place of Florencia Colucci as Laura, the rest of the cast are fine too. As we move towards the twist in the tale there are certainly more clues in this remake; the twist in the original was delivered fairly brutally and somewhat controversially as a result. Certain key scenes are less scary in this than in the original, I found, but there is more to this film overall, which I felt meant it was well worth investing in; there’s also a whole new character in Sophia which worked well I would say.
It’s a fairly disturbing tale and that perhaps is delivered with more clarity in the remake than in the original.
I love both the original and the remake. And I would recommend both.
