First Trailer For The American Silent House, A Single Take Horror Film

The US remake of Silent House premiered at Sundance almost a full year ago, and the film is finally set for release in March. This timing seems intended to exploit the imminent buzz from when the film’s star, Elizabeth Olsen, gets her practically-guaranteed Oscar nomination for Martha Marcy May Marlene.

I’ve not seen this remake so I can’t vouch for it having been executed in a single take, but it’s certainly supposed to consist of one unbroken shot. Cheating may have been employed.

The trailer, however, is as full of edits as you’d expect.

Incidentally, the original Uruguyan La Casa Muda also purported to be shot in a single take, at least as far as its prologue, which played out more conventionally with a good number of cuts. Previously, I spoke to its director, Gustav Hernandez, about his reasoning for these editing stratagems.

It would be interesting to have a follow-up chat with Chris Kentis and Laura Lau, the directors of this remake to see what their take on the shooting style is. No pun intended.

Flashback footnote: here’s a clip from the film that was issued around the Sundance premiere last year. It shows off Ms. Olsen’s performance at its most harried and stressed.