Screen Junkies » The Silent House

7 Films Shot In Real Time Like ‘Silent House’

Wookie Johnson — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 16:16:42 +0000

Festival darling Elizabeth Olsen stars in Silent House, which opens today. Adding a new twist and gimmick to the field of micro-budget horrors, Silent House is built around the convention of being shot as one continuous take presented in real time. I’ve yet to see the film, but real time is a pretty cool way to watch a film when it’s done correctly. The execution is tricky, but most importantly, it needs to rest upon a fantastic idea.

Reviews of Silent House are almost evenly split with the consensus being gimmicky but scary, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Of course, real time isn’t for everyone as you’ll see with the real time films listed below. What do you think, is real time worthwhile or a waste of time?

16 Blocks

Bruce Willis plays a burnt out New York City detective tasked with escorting Mos Def (aka Mos) to his grand jury testimonial. However, Mos’s Eddie is set to testify against a crooked cop who will in turn bring down every crooked cop in the department. Willis and Mos then have 90 minutes to travel the sixteen blocks downtown with an army of cops trying to kill them. I recommend they just take 2nd Avenue. Everyone else swears by the FDR but I’ve had little luck on it.

Nick of Time

In Nick of Time, Johnny Depp plays a mild-mannered accountant who is ordered to assassinate a Governor in exchange for his daughter’s life. We know that he’s mild-mannered because his character isn’t wearing earrings, face paint, or a dead crow on his head. Christopher Walken is excellent as Depp’s kidnapper and tormentor. The lesson here: never get in a van with Christopher Walken.

Scary Movie Scene Supercut

Jame Gumb — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 20:30:41 +0000

It‘s been a while since we did a supercut, so we put together this montage of some of the scariest scenes cinema has to offer. While the clips do tend to come from the horror genre, that wasn’t a prerequisite for making the list. Films like Jurassic Park and Predator don’t really qualify as horror films, yet they both have some extremely frightening scenes that made it in. By that logic, I’m not really sure why the Kathy Bates hot tub scene in About Schmidt didn’t qualify.

As it just so happens, another scary film by the name of Silent House hits theaters this Friday (March 9th), so if our supercut has put you in the mood for horror, go and check it out.

And when you get to the theater, tell them “ScreenJunkies sent you.” We get an extra nickle every time someone says that.

Elizabeth Olsen Has A Crappy Vacation In ‘Silent House’ Trailer

Wookie Johnson — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 13:56:42 +0000

After a few breakout hits at Sundance, everyone wants Elizabeth Olsen these days. So much so that she’s being stalked all over the place. In this trailer for Silent House, her dad is completely Facebook stalking her and then to make matters worse there’s someone or something inside her summer house trying to attack her.

This horror film is drawing rave reviews which means it must have a gimmick. Shot on the cheap as one continuous take, Silent House is a horror tale told in real time. Which means the viewer is essentially front row center as the main character spends the film trying to escape while more and more terrifying mysteries are brought into light. The film was sold to Lionsgate for $2 million after building good buzz at Sundance. That may not seem like a lot of profit in movie terms but keep in mind, they didn’t need to hire an editor.

See The Trailer For The ‘First Horror Film In One Continuous Shot’

Joseph Gibson — Fri, 25 Mar 2011 17:27:32 +0000

The single-shot movie has been a rare treat throughout movie history. Only a few filmmakers have ever attempted to make an entire movie in a single shot. Alfred Hitchcock wanted to do it with Rope, but technology at the time only allowed for shots of 10 or 11 minutes at a time. There’s also Russian Ark, which is probably the most famous single-shot movie. But weirdly, the technique hasn’t been used to make a straight-up horror movie, until The Silent House, directed by Gustavo Hernández. The movie premiered last year at Cannes, and, in a startling display of efficiency, there’s already an American remake starring an Olsen sister. Now you can see a trailer, and it’s creepy as hell. I’m definitely excited for this, and not just because I’m a sucker for long takes and single-setting horror movies and thrillers, like last year’s Buried.