Nerds That Geek Movie Review: ‘Silent House’

Written by Scott Edwards 

Sarah, her father and uncle are all out at the family lake house, trying to fix it up to put it on the market to sell. Without having a tenant, the past season, the local kids had free reign over the house and broke out all of the windows and messed up some of the rooms. Not being able to see what is happening when they are not there, John and Peter get very fed up, but it will not stop them from achieving their goal of getting the house back up to specs. But being brothers, John and Peter still continue to have their little battles and although they always seem to get back on the same page, they do need time away.

After their last rift, Uncle Peter heads back into town to find an electrician to come and rewire the dark house. Staying back with her father, Sarah starts lighting lamps and candles around the house so there will be light since none can enter through the boarded-up windows. Hearing something upstairs, Sarah begs her dad to go up and check it out but does not want to be left alone downstairs. Walking through the upper level, Sarah and her father don’t find any reason for the sounds, but her father seems to be trying to hide something from her, when finding a batch of Polaroid photos on a bed. Being told to get back to work, Sarah does just that since it is her job, but when her father leaves the room, she starts hearing strange sounds again and when a strong thud echoes through the house, she starts fearing the worst and cannot locate her father.

Finding her father's battered body in one of the closets, she sees that he is still alive and tries to leave the house to get help, but without the keys to all of the locks, she is trapped. With no natural light illuminating from the outside, she has to depend on her flashlights and lanterns to show her the way, but those are not dependable as she drops them along the way. Being able to get out of the house through the basement, she is able to flag down her uncle while he is driving back. Hearing that his brother is in trouble, Peter enters the house to try to find him but there is someone outside the house, stalking Sarah and she is forced to run back into the dreaded house.

Silent House follows the story of young Sarah as she is trying to escape whatever danger is hiding within the walls of her family’s lake house. With no light being able to enter the house from the outside world, she has to be dependent on her lanterns and flashlights. But with someone else in the house, she is too scared to keep track of the lights and tries to escape, fearing for her life. Trying to get help from her uncle, she is driven back into the house to try to find her father, but there is someone roaming the halls that is not looking for help, but for retribution. As the lights go off, Sarah hears strange things around the old estate, and when they come back on, it is not any better as she sees other people walking around and doing things that she has never seen before. After her uncle gets knocked out by one of the intruders, Sarah has to find a way to get out of the house again and get help, but when her childhood friend is standing at the front door, Sarah sees that there is more going on than she could ever imagine.

The only thing I can really say about this movie is, wow. More of a psychological story than a horror story as you can see Sarah dealing with her own fears when they come to light. After roaming the house in the dark, it is easy to find things that could be scary, but it was more focusing on something deeper in Sarah’s mind than anything else. I will admit, if I am looking for light to see what is in front of me however, I will never use a camera to see what is there, since the intervals between flashes could help manifest some very strange things. If you are afraid of the dark or going to be stuck in a place that does not receive any external light, you might want to avoid this movie since there are things that go bump in the night, that only the light can protect you from. Stay Scared.

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