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Cult Review
Senior Film Conservator
If you have a soft spot for moody, black-and-white setups where everything feels just a bit *wrong*, then yeah, give House of Silence a spin. It’s not exactly a barrel of laughs, and if you’re looking for high-octane thrills, you’re going to be bored out of your mind. It moves like molasses, but that’s the point, I think.
The whole thing is built on this nasty little lie. A banker and his housekeeper get wiped out, and the killer tries to make it look like a tragic brawl between the two of them. It’s cruel. It makes you feel sort of dirty just watching it unfold.
The shadows in this movie are doing a lot of the heavy lifting. There’s a scene near the beginning where the lighting just hits the banker's desk in a way that feels… suffocating. It’s hard to put your finger on why, but it works.
I found myself thinking about Rain while watching the way the characters navigate these cramped, indoor spaces. There’s a similar sense of nowhere left to run, even if the settings couldn’t be more different. Nobody here is having a good day. Honestly, nobody is really having a good life.
There’s this one moment where the camera just lingers on a door handle for way too long. It’s not a deep artistic choice or some grand metaphor. It’s just weird. It made me wonder if the camera operator just got distracted or forgot to cut.
You can tell the movie is trying to make you feel the weight of the crime, but sometimes it overdoes it. It’s a bit like watching someone try to paint a masterpiece with a roller brush. A little too much effort on the atmosphere, not enough on the actual punch of the story.
Is it perfect? Hardly. It’s messy and a bit disjointed in places. But it’s got that specific, dusty charm that keeps you watching even when the plot starts to sag. It’s not going to change your life, but it’ll stick to your ribs for a few hours. 🎞️