A movie whose terror can be read in every silent scream on Olsen's gorgeous face, served up in more extreme close-ups than you can count. full review

The camera's unblinking eye constantly stays with Olsen, and we feel in as much danger as she is. full review

It's Olsen's performance that makes Sarah's plight matter. And the actress proves that her mesmerizing turn in last fall's Martha Marcy May Marlene -- about a woman on the lam from a cult -- wasn't a fluke. full review

Silent House feels like a psychotic episode come to life. It's impressive and oppressive, and it very effectively gets on your nerves. full review

[Olsen is] terrific at showing shifts of emotion just underneath the skin of her wide, china-doll face. full review

Paranormal Activity has been here before, of course, but Silent House springs tangy new tricks, and Olsen is a primo scream queen. full review

Olsen is compelling even when the film isn't. full review

The creeping presence of horror-flick hokum not only robs the scares of their strength, it shatters the realism that the single-take format is trying to convey. full review

Demonstrating the limits of being too clever in a genre movie, the art-house chiller "Silent House" lets the tenseness of its first act trickle away. full review

A scary, yet thoughtful - some might even say deep - art-house frightfest. full review

Sometimes you don't want to know what is lurking in the dark because the answer is just too obvious and dumb. full review

It's not hard to guess the source of her horror, and so the film's most interesting aspects are its gimmicks rather than its frights. full review

Sarah does any number of silly things while scurrying through this not-so-silent house, but keeps the audience on her side; you want her to get out of the house immediately but you don't get annoyed with her when she can't. full review

Even if Silent House had turned out as grimy, gory and stupid as much of its terrorplex ilk, the film would still be an achievement simply owing to its construction. full review

"Silent House'' is up to something. The filmmakers, Chris Kentis and Laura Lau, must have seen plenty of horror movies worth discussing in a women's studies class. full review

The tricky camera moves that fill up "Silent House" make for one-half of a nerveracking horror film - before the movie's obviousness just gets on your nerves. full review

The directors have come up with a new and powerful way to film a thriller: Silent House contains no quick editing in the active moments, and there is never an instance when the movie cuts unexpectedly to something scary as the soundtrack thunders. full review

"The silence will kill you!" warn the posters for "Silent House." That's only if the boredom doesn't get you first, though. full review

A denouement more textbook than thrilling stalls some of the movie's power. But the early chills are potent, intense. full review

It wouldn't work without the exceptional work of Olsen. Her uneasily captivating performance here could almost be viewed as the "why" prequel to Martha Marcy May Marlene, the other chiller from Sundance 2011 that established her as rising star to watch. full review