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Before you start reading this, just know I am talking about the Spanish-language original and not the American remake starring Elizabeth Olsen (Martha Marcy May Marlene) that hits theaters on March 9. Also, this article is filled with spoilers for the original film, which I watched as the result of a scheduling issue that caused me to miss a screening of the remake. Having missed that screening, I decided to watch a year-old screener of Gustavo Hernandez's 2010 original, which earned a lot of attention when it was released, primarily due to the fact it was supposedly shot in one, long 86-minute take. The Silent House begins with a girl -- presumably around the age of 21 or so -- named Laura (Florencia Colucci), walking through a field with her father to what appears to be an abandoned house. They wait for the owner, Nestor, to arrive and let them in so...

Two pieces of interesting international horror news recently came to our attention, and as always, we're passing the info along to you. Think of what a water-cooler stud you'll be when you say…"Hey, I heard that Uruguay is submitting La Casa Muda for Oscar consideration" or "Can you believe Spain snubbed Pedro Almodovar again!?" The ladies will be tearing their panties off for you. Literally ripping undergarments from their bodies because they are so impressed with your knowledge of international cinema. You're welcome.

Uruguay selects La Casa Muda for Oscar consideration

Gustavo Hernandez made magic on a small budget with his film La Casa Muda (The Silent House). Now his efforts are paying off as Uruguay has selected his horror film to be submitted for Foreign-Language Film consideration at the 2012 Oscars.

La Casa Muda (review here) stars Florencia Colucci, Abel Tripaldi, Gustavo Alonso and Maria Salazar in a chilling...

It was just at this year's Afm that we reported the directing team of Chris Kentis and Laura Lau (Open Water) were getting behind an English language remake of La Casa Muda, aka Silent House, the first Latin American film to be shot entirely with a professional photo camera that also happened to be filmed in one single 80-minute sequence shot! Well guess what? It's on its way to Us markets!

Open Road Films has partnered with Liddell Entertainment for the U.S. release of Silent House.

Original La Casa Muda Synopsis:

Laura (Florencia Colucci) and her father, Wilson (Gustavo Alonso), settle down in a cottage that seems to be off the beaten track in order to update it since its owner (Abel Tripaldi) will soon put the house up for sale. They will spend the night there in order to start the repairs the following morning. Everything seems to...

Gustavo Hernandez’ debut film The Silent House (La Casa Muda) takes inspiration from a real life case which happened nearly seventy years ago, and the Uruguayan horror film has played to festival crowds and had a limited release over here in UK cinemas in April.

Now the film comes to DVD and we had the chance to speak to the director about his influences, the one-shot technique and the culture of remakes, particularly in the horror genre.

This film is based on a real event in the 1940s – but what other influences came to mind when you were developing it – both literary and cinematic?

We were influenced by films such as David Moreau’s and Xabier Palud’s Them (Ils) and Alexandre Aja’s High Tension (Haute Tension). Also by Edgar Allan Poe, John Carpenter, Kubrick and Alejandro Amenábar. There are always direct and indirect influences in our films and...

The Silent House (La Casa Muda) is an unrepentant gimmick film. It almost has to be, because it'd be a hard sell without it. That's not to say that its a film undeserving of your attention -- it's a fascinating story -- but it needs a hook to grab audience interest. That hook is a blessing and a curse, but ultimately the film ends up being a surprisingly satisfying little slice of horror.

The Uruguayan film, directed by Gustavo Hernández, is supposedly a single, continuous 80 minute take, and that's of course the hook. The story concerns a young woman, Laura (Florencia Colucci), who is working with her father on restoring an old, dilapidated farmhouse. The film picks up as Laura walks onto the property, and from there Colucci is the singular focus of the entire film -- she is essentially in every frame. Once in the house, Laura begins hearing strange,...

Dive into three dark, disturbing, and intense clips from Gustavo Hernandez’s spooky “The Silent House”, billed as “the first horror film in the world that discovers fear without tricks in one sequence of 78 minutes”. Basically, the whole thing takes place in one long, continuous shot, minus any editing tricks. Which, let’s face it, is pretty damn impressive. The film already has an American remake playing the festival circuits, but don’t let that stop you from peeking at the original first. And if you’re interested, we already have two reviews of the film online. Check out James Mudge’s review here, then Todd Rigney’s take here. Laura (Florencia Colucci) and her father Wilson (Gustavo Alonso) settle down in a cottage they have to fix up since its owner will soon put the house up for sale. They will spend the night there and start repairs the following morning.

The Silent House (opening theatrically at New York City’s IFC Center today and hitting VOD May 11) has an admirable aim. Through one continuous take, it leads the audience down a singular path with Laura (Florencia Colucci), discovering the secrets and evils of a possibly haunted rural Uruguyan home as she does. It’s an admirable gambit, but not quite successful—as in, it ruins the film.

The Silent House Movie Trailer has premiered. Gustavo Hernández‘s The Silent House / La Casa Muda (2010) stars Florencia Colucci, Abel Tripaldi, Gustavo Alonso, and María Salazar. The Silent House (La Casa Muda)’s plot synopsis: “Based on a true story that happened in the late 40’s in a small village in uruguay. Filmed in one single continuous shot of seventy eight minutes, “La Casa Muda” focuses on Laura, who, second by second, intends to leave a house which hides an obscure secret, unharmed. The Silent House is a different independent film in its genre, filmed with a digital camera in one single shot, without any cuts and in real time. It’s the first horror film in the world that discovers fear without tricks in one sequence of 78 minutes. It’s also the first feature film that was completely filmed with the digital camera Canon Mark II. This camera offers...

Claiming to be based on a true story, The Silent House is a daring and captivating new Uruguayan horror film from director Gustavo Hernández.

The film focuses on Laura (Florencia Colucci) and her father, Wilson (Gustavo Alonso), as they move into an empty house in order to renovate it in preparation for its impending sale.

The owner leaves them with only one instruction: don’t go upstairs. However, when they suddenly hear loud banging coming from the upper level, Wilson decides to disobey the order and goes up to see what is going on. Laura is left on her own, waiting for her father to re-emerge.

Supposedly shot in a single take, Hernández uses this relatively unusual technique to his advantage, establishing a sinister, troubling atmosphere from the offset and allowing that to escalate and and expand in an inspired, torrid way as the narrative progresses. However, it comes with its own innate problems.

Armadillo (15)

(Janus Metz, 2010, Den) 105 mins

After last year's Restrepo, another fine documentary from the Afghanistan front line, bringing us closer than we'd like to a war we'd rather not think about. Again we track a tour of duty with its mix of boredom, adrenaline and futility, but the key differences here are that they're Danish soldiers (who seem a lot less uptight about access) and the camerawork is better than in most fictional war movies. As a result, we're brought right into the soldiers' lives, and pitched into the heart of battle when things really heat up.

Cold Fish (18)

(Sion Sono, 2010, Jap) Makoto Ashikawa, Denden, Mitsuru Fukikoshi. 146 mins

Not your average serial killer, this one's sociable, presentable and a big fish in the fishkeeping world – even if there's a grisly explanation for his success. As we follow a meek colleague drawn into his demented orbit, proceedings get uglier and messier,...

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

The premise of this Uruguay production but Spanish language film alone should be enough to prick up the ears of horror fans everywhere. Especially if, like me, you feel the landscape looks pretty bleak for the genre.

Based on true events that occurred in a small Uruguayan village over 50 years ago, The Silent House tells the story of a young girl, Laura (Florencia Colucci) and her father Wilson (Gustavo Alonso) as they move into an empty house in order to renovate it in advance of its sale. Needless to say that everything is not as it seems.

The same is true of the film, which was shot all in one take (we are told) and incorporates the photographic remnants of the real silent house (polaroids of the horrific events remain), and so the atmosphere and authenticity of the film are greatly bolstered.

There are certainly some...

This Uruguayan horror film shot in one take had even critics yelping, says Peter Bradshaw

The Silent House has the technical flair of an exceptionally creepy and insidious conjuring trick. Not since Paranormal Activity have I seen a film make a roomful of hardened critics yelp suddenly and simultaneously. It is a lo-fi psychological horror from Uruguayan director Gustavo Hernández about unexplained happenings within a derelict house in remote woodland, based on a real-life unsolved murder case in Uruguay from the 1940s. The film is shot in real time on a handheld digital camera in one, continuous 78-minute take, or rather, the first 78 minutes is shot in this way. You must not leave during the credits.

Laura (Florencia Colucci) is a young woman who, as night falls, arrives at a crumbling old property with her grumpy father Wilson (Gustavo Alonso); he appears to be a long-time employee, factotum and family...

We need more Uruguayan horror in my opinion, and The Silent House may have the ‘real time/filmed in one take’ gimmick working for it there’s something nasty in this film from Gustavo Hernández.

We saw the UK trailer a couple of days ago and now there’s a new clip which sees Florencia Colucci lost in the woods and then, at the end, we get a glimpse of something that really shouldn’t be there.

The plot of La Casa Muda is based on a true story that happened in the late 1940′s in a village in Uruguay. It focuses on Laura (Colucci) – who intends to leave a house which hides a secret, unharmed. Laura and her father Wilson (Alonso) settle down in a cottage they have to renew since its owner will soon sell it. Everything seems to go smoothly until Laura hears a sound coming from...

You don't have to have seen too many horror movies to know that that strange banging noise coming from upstairs probably isn't a bundle of fluffy bunny rabbits trampolining around your attic. In fact, chances are it's some kind of she-devil looking to slaughter its way back to the underworld or a dybbuk looking for a Coen brothers movie.Either way, the moral is: let someone else deal with it. Alas, it's a lesson completely lost on the father and daughter pair at the heart of impressively creepy horror The Silent House.The soon-to-be-terrorised twosome have travelled to a rental house in a remote part of the Uruguyan countryside. There they're troubled by a noise emanating first from outside, then from upstairs. As you can tell from this clip, dad's (Gustavo Alonso) decision to investigate doesn't end well and Laura (Florencia Colucci) is left to run for it. brightcove.createExperiences...

Real life Uruguayan horror “The Silent House” (“La Casa Muda”) from director Gustavo Hernández has caused a considerable stir on the international festival circuit over the last year, having played at Cannes 2010 and other prestigious events as well as the usual genre shows. Benefitting from strong word of mouth, the film even has a Us remake under the belt, the upside of which is that the original is finally getting a more general release. Aside from its country of origin, with Uruguayan outings being somewhat thin on the ground, the low budget chiller is notable for playing out in real time in a single shot, a bold move in the manner of Hitchcock’s classic “Rope”, even more of a challenge here given the need for special effects and scares. The film is based upon actual events in Uruguay from the 1940s, and follows a young woman called Laura (actress...

Optimum Releasing have unveiled the first UK trailer for acclaimed Uruguayan horror-drama The Silent House (La Casa Muda).

Directed by first-time filmmaker Gustavo Hernández in a single 78-minute take on an HD digital, The Silent House stars Florencia Colucci, Abel Tripaldi, Gustavo Alonso and María Salazar.

The plot of La Casa Muda is based on a true story that happened in the late 1940′s in a village in Uruguay. It focuses on Laura (Colucci) – who intends to leave a house which hides a secret, unharmed. Laura and her father Wilson (Alonso) settle down in a cottage they have to renew since its owner will soon sell it. Everything seems to go smoothly until Laura hears a sound coming from outside that gets louder and louder on the upstairs floor.

The Silent House premiered at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival, and will open in selected UK cinemas on April 8.

Check out the...

How effective is horror, a genre defined by tricky edits and Neve Campbell's harried grimace, when its thrills are conveyed in one continuous shot? Gustavo Hernández's 2010 Cannes selection The Silent House -- which comes out in the UK this April -- wants to answer that. In the new trailer (which, counterintuitively, is a patchwork of quick cuts) young actress Florencia Colucci tries to flee an ominous house in rural Uruguay, but some dark-ass force has her number.

The Silent House (La Casa Muda) directed by Gustavo Hernandez and photographed by Pedro Luque (Ataque de Pánico), is the first Latin America film (and the second world wide) to have been filmed by a photographic camera. It also claims to be the first horror film to be filmed in one single shot using the Slr digital, a Canon Eos 5D Mark and a minimal low budget of $6000. If you’re a fan of Blair Witch Project, [Rec] and Paranormal Activity, you should certainly be interested in seeing this movie. Screened at the Directors’ Fortnight at Cannes, The Silent House generated a tremendous amount of buzz and is said to be based on a true story.

Synopsis:

Laura (Florencia Colucci) and her father Wilson (Gustavo Alonso) settle down in a remote cottage in order to renovate it since its owner (Abel Tripaldi) will soon put the house up for sale. They...

Not every day you see a horror hailing from Uruguay so its news of note that The international trailer and artwork for Gustavo Hernández’s - shot in one continuous 78 min take - indy horror thriller The Silent House have just been released. The film - opening in UK cinemas on 8 April 2011 has been getting a lot of attention due to the real time shooting style, and surprise surprise, the American remake is also already in production. Linkage below. Synopsis: Laura ( Florencia Colucci) and her father ( Gustavo Alonso) settle down in a cottage which seems to be off the beaten track in order to update it since its owner ( Abel Tripaldi) will soon put the house on sale. They will spend the night there in order to start the repairs the following morning. Everything seems to go on smoothly until Laura hears a sound that comes from outside and gets...

Scream 4

Opens: April 15th 2011

Cast: Neve Campbell, David Arquette, Courteney Cox, Mary McDonnell, Emma Roberts Director: Wes Craven

Summary: Sidney Prescott, now the author of a self-help book, returns home to Woodsboro on the last stop of her book tour. There she reconnects with family and friends, but it also brings about the return of Ghostface which puts the whole town in danger.

Analysis: Back in late 1996 when I first began covering film news, "Scream" was released and became more than just a sleeper hit. After years of genre movies being relegated to direct-to-video status, this comedic slasher spawned the biggest surge in the horror film genre since "Halloween" almost two decades before. Its post-modern stylings and witty self-aware dialogue went on to be a big influence on films and television in general.

Yet the "Scream" series itself never could quite capture that glory again. By the time the...

The Silent House "La Casa Muda" (not to be mistaken for Silent House)has made its run at Sundance 2011 and his been picked up by Liddell Entertainment. Dig on the new images and posters after the jump! Plot:

Laura (Florencia Colucci) and her father (Gustavo Alonso) settle down in a cottage which seems to be off the beaten track in order to update it since its owner (Abel Tripaldi) will soon put the house on sale. They will spend the night there in order to start the repairs the following morning. Everything seems to go on smoothly until Laura hears a sound that comes from outside and gets louder and louder in the upper floor of the house. Wilson goes up to see what is going on while she remains downstairs on her own waiting for her father to come down.

The plot is based on a true story that...

While the remake is making a lot of noise over at the Sundance Film Festival, some new stills for the original Silent House (La Casa Muda) have made their way online! Dig it!

Directed by Gustavo Hernandez, photographed by Pedro Luque, and produced by Gustavo Rojo at an amazingly low budget that amounts to $6,000 (Us). La Casa Muda (The Silent House) digs deeply into the unexplored subject of psychological terror, and here's the full synopsis provided to us by Rojo:

Laura (Florencia Colucci) and her father Wilson (Gustavo Alonso) settle down in a cottage that seems to be off the beaten track in order to update it since its owner (Abel Tripaldi) will soon put the house up for sale. They will spend the night there in order to start the repairs the following morning. Everything seems to go smoothly until Laura hears a sound that comes from outside and...

Lidell Entertainment will distribute Silent House, picking up worldwide rights to the Sundance horror. According to Variety, CAA negotiated with Lieddell for $3 million. Silent House starring Elizabeth Olsen and Adam Trese, is an English remake of La Casa Muda, a Uraguayan film starring Gustavvo Alonso and Florencia Colucci. The story tells of a young woman who is trapped in a nightmare, and descends into madness. Olsen can be seen next in Peace, Love & Misunderstanding with Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Catherine Keener, Chace Crawford and Jane Fonda...

Lidell Entertainment will distribute Silent House, picking up worldwide rights to the Sundance horror. According to Variety, CAA negotiated with Lieddell for $3 million. Silent House starring Elizabeth Olsen and Adam Trese, is an English remake of La Casa Muda, a Uraguayan film starring Gustavvo Alonso and Florencia Colucci. The story tells of a young woman who is trapped in a nightmare, and descends into madness. Olsen can be seen next in Peace, Love & Misunderstanding with Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Catherine Keener, Chace Crawford and Jane Fonda...

Lidell Entertainment will distribute Silent House, picking up worldwide rights to the Sundance horror. According to Variety, CAA negotiated with Lieddell for $3 million. Silent House starring Elizabeth Olsen and Adam Trese, is an English remake of La Casa Muda, a Uraguayan film starring Gustavvo Alonso and Florencia Colucci. The story tells of a young woman who is trapped in a nightmare, and descends into madness. Olsen can be seen next in Peace, Love & Misunderstanding with Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Catherine Keener, Chace Crawford and Jane Fonda...

Lidell Entertainment will distribute Silent House, picking up worldwide rights to the Sundance horror. According to Variety, CAA negotiated with Lieddell for $3 million. Silent House starring Elizabeth Olsen and Adam Trese, is an English remake of La Casa Muda, a Uraguayan film starring Gustavvo Alonso and Florencia Colucci. The story tells of a young woman who is trapped in a nightmare, and descends into madness. Olsen can be seen next in Peace, Love & Misunderstanding with Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Catherine Keener, Chace Crawford and Jane Fonda...

Talk about moving fast! It was just at this year's Afm that we reported the directing team of Chris Kentis and Laura Lau (Open Water) were getting behind an English language remake of La Casa Muda, aka Silent House, the first Latin American film to be shot entirely with a professional photo camera that also happened to be filmed in one single 80-minute sequence shot! Well guess what?

According to the official Sundance 2011 website the remake is not only in the can, but it will be screening at Utah's big dance as part of their Park City at Midnight series! Pretty friggin' cool!

In tackling the project, Kentis and Lau say they were “fascinated by this question of how we could explore the events leading to these brutal murders and make audiences feel as though the story is happening to them - that it is real.” The filmmakers added that...

The prospect of a horror movie filmed in one continuous shot is a herculean feat to say the least. La Casa Muda, aka Silent House, the first Latin American film to be shot entirely with a professional photo camera that also happened to be filmed in one single 80-minute sequence shot, achieved this feat. So of course we have to remake it here!

According to Screen Daily French sales outfit Elle Driver is moving into full-on financing with an English-language reimagining of the Uruguayan horror film Silent House.

The Us film will be directed by Chris Kentis and Laura Lau, the team behind the chilling shark tale Open Water. The original Silent House, which ran in Cannes Directors Fortnight this year, was directed by Gustavo Hernandez and told in 80 minutes of “real time” during one continuous take.

In tackling the project, Kentis and Lau say they were “fascinated by this...

Whether it's good or bad, Uruguayan director Gustavo Hernández's The Silent House should be commended for the idea and effort alone. The film is about a father and daughter working on a boarded up house, only to hear strange noises from the basement. Scary stuff ensues.

Not the most original concept, sure. But then again, as has been demonstrated on a couple of different occasions, there's something great about taking a standard concept like that and injecting new life into it. Oddly, the best recent examples have all been low-budget affairs that have been incredibly well done, innovative, and scary as hell. I'm speaking of films like The Descent, Paranormal Activity, and [Rec].

Well, Hernández is taking the simple haunted house story and trying something pretty radical. The film was shot using a handheld camera and uses only the actual light on the sets (from flashlights, lanterns, candles, etc.).

Oh,...

This is for those who thought Paranormal Activity was the sh*t. Take note of Gustavo Hernández's La Casa Muda (The Silent House) - a Director's Fortnight selected title from Uruguay with the uniqueness being that the picture is filmed in one take (think Russian Ark, Pvc-1) and is impressive feat when you consider that there's a thin, but applicable narrative based on a true story. Hernández and cinematographer Pedro Luque do a great job with the lighting and the camera isn't one of those vomit enducing shaky cam headaches, but something that allows for you to see the incremental fear and then delirium in actress Florencia Colucci's face. - This is for those who thought Paranormal Activity was the sh*t. Take note of Gustavo Hernández's La Casa Muda (The Silent House) - a Director's Fortnight selected title from Uruguay with the uniqueness being that...

This is for those who thought Paranormal Activity was the sh*t. Take note of Gustavo Hernández's La Casa Muda (The Silent House) - a Director's Fortnight selected title from Uruguay with the uniqueness being that the picture is filmed in one take (think Russian Ark, Pvc-1) and is impressive feat when you consider that there's a thin, but applicable narrative based on a true story. Hernández and cinematographer Pedro Luque do a great job with the lighting and the camera isn't one of those vomit enducing shaky cam headaches, but something that allows for you to see the incremental fear and then delirium in actress Florencia Colucci's face. Here's a montage of the presentation.

Gustavo Hernandez's La Casa Muda proves surprisingly difficult to address.

When the trailer for the film first appeared and caused something of a cult buzz in the online community, the attention was split evenly between the fact that the film was contained in a single uninterrupted shot and that what glimpses we got of that shot were remarkably cinematic - perhaps the best looking of the first-person horror films released to date. And on that level La Casa Muda delivers wholeheartedly.

The film is a remarkable exercise in atmosphere, impeccably shot by Pedro Luque - also behind the camera for viral sensation, giant robot short film Panic Attack - and graced with aggressive and effective sound design. That the jumps work and the film plays to a crowd is undeniable.

Unfortunately, what is also undeniable is that there are some significant flaws as well, prime among them a serious...