The Silent House review

A bold Uruguayan horror which gets bogged down in clichés

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Imagine Russian Ark via Blair Witch’s last five minutes. Then lower expectations.

Gustavo Hernández’s one-take Uruguayan horror is daring and technically well-executed, but its plot clichés creak like old floorboards.

Late-teen Laura (Florencia Colucci) and her dad (Abel Tripaldi) ready a country house for sale; when dad ventures upstairs, he’s tossed back, bound and brutalised.

Laura’s own spooky upstairs sojourn summons some scares – the Polaroid scene kills – but it also plods and stretches credulity, problems only partially addressed by the vague twist ending.

Freelance writer

Kevin Harley is a freelance journalist with bylines at Total Film, Radio Times, The List, and others, specializing in film and music coverage. He can most commonly be found writing movie reviews and previews at 12DOVE.