

A remake of the 2010 Uruguayan hit
La Casa Muda, this film's premise is as bare-boned as its predecessor: Young Sarah (played by a magnetic Elizabeth Olsen) is charged with helping her family clean up an old lake house that just happens to have a few bogeymen and disembodied things. Sarah creeps around the unforgiving perimeter, pausing to stare into dark spaces, claw at potential openings and give a wordless scream as her family members disappear. With few breaks in the action and tight camera work capturing the events in real-time (courtesy of husband-wife duo Christ Kentis and Laura Lau), the audience witnesses firsthand the inescapable terror of the house. Although the denouement lacks the intensity of the setup, most of the film elicits the kind of nerve-rattling panic that makes this brand of dread so memorable.
By
Kathy Justice