The Silent House review

Imagine Russian Ark via Blair Witch’s last five minutes. Then lower expectations.

Gustavo Hernández’s one-take Uruguayan horror is daring and technically well-executed, but its plot clichés creak like old floorboards.

Late-teen Laura (Florencia Colucci) and her dad (Abel Tripaldi) ready a country house for sale; when dad ventures upstairs, he’s tossed back, bound and brutalised.

Laura’s own spooky upstairs sojourn summons some scares – the Polaroid scene kills – but it also plods and stretches credulity, problems only partially addressed by the vague twist ending.