Silent House is a 2011 American independent psychological horror film directed by Chris Kentis and Laura Lau, and starring Elizabeth Olsen.

The plot focuses on a young woman who is terrorized in her family vacation home while cleaning the property with her father and uncle.

It is notable for its use of "real time" footage and the manufactured appearance of a single continuous shot, similar to Alfred Hitchcock's Rope (1948).

A young woman named Sarah is staying at her family's dilapidated Victorian house in the countryside with her father John and her uncle Peter, helping them fix it to be put up for sale.

Sarah tries to shoot one of the men with Peter's gun, then hides in her room and begins to show signs of paranoia and psychosis.

She experiences hallucinations of traumatic childhood events, including a bloodstain on the bed and the young girl in the bathtub with beer bottles and bloody water.

[7] While writing the script for the film, Lau did extensive research on childhood sexual abuse and posttraumatic stress disorder stemming from psychological trauma.

According to Lau, she and Kentis were told, when approached to make the film, that it was based on an occurrence in Uruguay, though the details were left ambiguous: When we were approached to do the remake, the first thing that we were told, aside from the fact that it was a single take, was that it was based on a true story, and that the true story had to do with something that happened in a village in Uruguay like, 60 years ago, where there were dead bodies and incest was involved.

[10] The movie was shot with Canon EOS 5D Mark II cameras[1] between October and November 2010 on location at a house in New Rochelle, New York.

[4] The house used in the film was found by directors Kentis and Lau entirely empty, and was wallpapered and filled with props and furniture by the production design.

Since filming was carried out in 12-15 minute takes, there were several occurrences where entire sequences had to be thrown out and re-done repeatedly due to lighting problems or missed cues.

[14] Directors Kentis and Lau stated that they were inspired by Alfred Hitchcock's Rope (1948) and Russian Ark (2002), both purported single take films, as well as the home invasion thriller The Strangers (2008).

The website's critics consensus reads: "Silent House is more technically proficient and ambitious than most fright-fests, but it also suffers from a disappointing payoff.

The Star Tribune described the film as "a psychotic episode come to life", and that it "follows the form of a Gothic novel", applauding it as being "impressive and oppressive".

[24] Others praised the technical production of the film, such as The Atlantic, who noted "the camera's unblinking eye constantly stays with Olsen, and we feel in as much danger as she is.

Club named it one of the worst movies of 2012, noting its "mediocrity takes a downward turn in a final act that hinges on an icky, exploitative twist.

"[30] David Edelstein of Vulture praised the film, defending it against the perceived critical backlash, writing: "It’s odd that the CinemaScore rating for Silent House, a more than decent gimmicky scare picture that opened last Friday, is an “F” — suggesting that critics like me are more excited by formal inventiveness than most of the film-going public.

Silent House was released on Blu-ray and DVD on July 24, 2012 in North America by Universal Pictures Home Video.