#laura lau

[in-love-with-movies]

Silent House (USA - France, 2011)

[iheartlizzieolsen]

[fuckyeahwomenfilmdirectors]

Silent House dir. Chris Kentis & Laura Lau (2011)

[heartbreakfeelsgoodinablog]

Experience 88 minutes of real fear, captured in real time

[jeanpascalmattei]

http://lemiroirdesfantomes.blogspot.com/2021/02/photos-interdites.html?view=magazine

[starlord4k]

Silent House (2011) — บ้านกระตุกหลอน

[tudorscharlot]

Silent House (Chris Kentis & Laura Lau, 2011)

31 Halloweens of October #12

You know when you take a drink of liquor and you can feel pleasant warmth spreading down your throat and through your chest? But you’re also someone who thinks alcohol tastes terrible?

There was a lot about this movie’s pacing and unfolding that I didn’t like. Until I got to the last scene. And then it all made sense in an unexpected but very satisfying way. And the warmth of what this movie is saying and the eloquence of the way it’s saying it is spreading lovingly through my chest now. Not that it isn’t a very scary and unsettling film.

SPOILERS

But ever since that pigfuck was given a seat on the Supreme Court, my need for revenge films that empower girls and women is even huger than it was before. As this film moves along, there is such a weird tension between our hero being legitimately terrified but also tending to almost daydream-like reveries. And this abstraction of her fear and sense urgency only increases as the film passes. It is unsettling, and it also makes it hard to feel what’s real. And what a good job! Rarely have I seen a horror film do so well at establishing firmly that what’s wrong has a human and completely realistic/explainable cause - and then subvert those very rules by seamlessly introducing events that are not objective or realistic. Once everything clicks into place during the last scene, everything that came before makes such good sense. And the well-earned reveal elevates a solid home-invasion thriller into something much deeper.

I think the most important thing that happens in this film is when Sophia comes to visit Sarah at the start of the film. A literal reading of this film leaves us with a woman who’s had a psychotic break and murdered her dad and attacked her uncle after unearthing memories of them sexually abusing her as a child. In that context, this act of revenge is most likely only leading to prison or an institution, and a lifetime of mental illness. But looked at symbolically, I believe this is the story of a woman who’s been forced to split her psyche in order to survive childhood trauma but who is now making herself whole again. When this film was over, I went back and rewatched the first scene with Sophia. It still felt ominous, but the bigger feeling was one of love.

This may be a cheesy connection to make, but I’m a big believer in, if you’re beating yourself up, asking yourself if you’d treat your partner or child or sibling the way you are treating yourself, and if the answer is no, then you need to change what you’re doing and be kinder.

END SPOILERS

I don’t know if anyone else would see what I saw here, but I think this genuinely frightening horror movie says something profound and beautiful about loving and being true to yourself. Plus, Elizabeth Olsen’s performance is fantastic. Highly recommended.

[acadia]

Women in Horror Trading Cards: Laura Lau

Women in Horror Trading Cards: Laura Lau #wihm2018challenge #wihm9 #wihm #womeninhorror

Laura Lau has directed three movies and two of them have been horror flicks.  And her first, Open Water was based on a true story about a couple on a scuba trip that gets left behind in shark infested waters.  It’s like Home Alone except Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern are sharks.  Let’s hope Laura keeps making horror movies!

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