Hush Review

Director: Mike Flanagan

Writer: Mike Flanagan, Kate Siegel

“When you wish you're dead... that's when I'll come inside. “

I honestly knew nothing going into this movie, it just popped up and just happened to be chosen out of a list of movies by me and my partner and I’m so glad it did. Hush is a film with no physical presence, apart from one film festival and then it just kind of appeared on Netflix. That doesn’t mean there’s anything wrong with Hush and I think it’s actually better than a lot of the films you might have seen at the cinema this year, Let’s talk about why.

The simple version of the story is this; a deaf/mute writer lives in a house secluded in the woods with her one neighbour. One day her neighbour is killed and the killer stalks our main character, Maddie (Kate Siegel) from the outside of her house. Maddie being deaf and mute adds a lot in the way the film plays out and is a big step in making Hush not just another slasher movie. It’s a pretty simple way to freshen the genre up and it’s certainly an effective one.

This movie has a tiny cast and we never actually leave the general area of the house, which is great. I never felt like I was missing out on anything, there’s no cut aways or other side stories, it’s two people and the movie is very focused on those two people. Kate Siegel, who played Maddie is great, clearly a hard character to play but I think she pulled it off really well. John Gallagher Jr plays our killer and he’s good at coming across a little unhinged. Our two main characters are good and the two supporting cast characters aren’t bad either, short and sweet crew. There’s not much dialog in this movie and the dialog we do get isn’t the strongest. It’s not so awful that I want to take points off though.

I also love the way Hush is directed, right from the start I loved the style and it only improved, with some lingering shots and some pretty brutal scenes. Hush has a good balance of generally impressive directing and shock factor. Plenty of scenes left me with my mouth open or my jaw locked up. It also comes with this neat little soundtrack which I really enjoyed and fitted nicely with the style.

Hush is a nice looking movie that is well directed, full of crazy and teeth grinding moments. A good small cast and a cool soundtrack definitely beef this movie up and the main characters “handicaps” leaves us with some interesting little editions to a what could have easily been another You’re Next. It’s sad that this movie doesn’t really have a release! It’s on Netflix, so do yourself a favour and spend some time with this fantastic little slasher film. Well done again, Mike Flanagan.

Rating

*****

Better than > You’re Next Worse than > It Follows

Main pros

-Cast

-The deaf/mute angle

-Direction

-Well focused

-Engaging

-Fresh but familiar

-Soundtrack

Main Cons