La casa muda
Director: Gustavo Hernández
Writer: Oscar Estévez, Gustavo Hernández, Gustavo Rojo
Cast: Florencia Colucci, Abel Tripaldi, Gustavo Alonso
Part of: Viennale

Plot:
Laura (Florencia Colucci) and her father (Gustavo Alonso) get hired by their old family friend Néstor (Abel Tripaldi) to clean up a remote little house Néstor owns, so that he can sell it. But when they settle down for the night to start repairs early the next day, there seems to be somebody on the upper floor of the house. And then the nightmare begins.

The entire film was shot pretty much in one take*. That is a pretty cool concept. Unfortunately they forgot everything else – plot, relatable characters, making sense, … – that makes for a good movie over said concept.

The first 20 minutes or so weren’t bad. The tension mounted nicely and when we get the first noises from the upper floor, it is quite scary. But then the movie goes quickly downhill.

At first it just became a little repetitive, then annoying and then they tried to surprise you and the plot twist just ruins everything. [SPOILER] Yet another woman who can’t handle an abortion. How tired I am of these things. You know, an abortion – and I might shock you with this – is not the end of a woman’s life, psyche or morality. Seriously, people. Just makes me wanna scream. [/SPOILER] And apart from that, with that plot reveal they obliterated their entire logic thus far. That is not how you do an unreliable narrator.

I have to congratulate them for the camera work. Despite being shaky cam, which comes with the territory, when you got one guy following the main character non-stop, it never got too nauseating. And it was really impressive how they mapped it out, how the cameraman and the cast always knew just were to go and be.

But when the logistics of a movie remain its most impressive point, something is very wrong indeed.

Summarising: Unless you’re very interested in camera work, you can miss it.

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*I have to admit that there is one scene towards the end where I’m suspecting a cut, but it might just be my cynicism talking. And the polaroids are definitely put in later.