Shot in a single, continuous take, Chris Kentis and Laura Lau's Silent House crackles with a gnawing anxiety like that which defined their debut, Open Water. The camera follows Sarah (Elizabeth Olsen), a young woman helping her father and uncle fix up their secluded summer home, who becomes trapped inside during an apparent home invasion. Since there is no electricity, the entire film is lit by lanterns and — in the climax — by the flash of a creepily deployed Polaroid camera. And so a sense of unease prevails from the opening frame, intensifying into dread, as the audience becomes privy to peculiar family dynamics. Conversational cadences are off, strange glances are cast, and everything feels quietly sinister. Though the final revelation of who's behind the malevolent forces at work feels hackneyed, and the denouement is excessively talky, these flaws don't spoil what is a deftly executed film.
