I’m not surprised many horror-floozies (myself, included) flock to the slasher sub-genre; whose habitual use of some-bloke-in-a-mask with an soft spot for pointy-things returning year after year for innumerable sequels would be the perfect metaphor to summarize the genre. They’re egregious, repetitive, and seem to exist only as a cathartic-release for the audience’s homicidal fantasies which my psychiatrist, Dr. Nilbog, says is perfectly normal and I shouldn’t be ashamed of it. That’s why last year I watched Neflix’s Hush, a horror film that was recommended to me by a heavily tattooed LA-producer whose poster had, what else, a dude in a mask. The movie, not the producer. Now I LOVE slasher movies with their silly screenplays, laughable acting, and comical ultraviolence, so you can imagine my surprise after I’d finished watching Hush, that I not only loved it to pieces but had almost totally forgotten that it didn’t have any of that rubbish. Hush is one of the most immersive cat-and-mouse thrillers I’ve ever had the pleasure of streaming, with a damn-near perfect (that’s right, I said it), perfect screenplay by Mike Flanagan (who directs), and Kate Siegel (who stars). Hush is an incredible, minimalist-slasher picture that’s actually a front for a brilliant character study of Siegel’s character: Maddie, a deaf (and mute) novelist living alone in a house in the woods when a masked man comes knocking on her window with a bloody knife in his hand.
That’s really all you need to know about Hush’s story. I wouldn’t call it simple, by any means but if Hush was an Olsen Twin, it’d be the anorexic one. The plot is as bare-boned as an ossuary. All you need to know is that there’s a woman in a house and a bad man want’s in, that’s it. Hush’s “story” is more or less an excuse to have Kate Siegel and John Gallagher Jr (The Man) go head-to-toe in a cinematic game of 3D chess where survival’s the prize. Pretty standard stuff as far as slasher-stories go, but Hush’s real game changer comes from Siegel’s character, in which the script actually takes time to actually develop. Usually in films with a body count (greater than 2) the audience roots for the killer punishing teens in hedonistic scenes that showcase taboo wish-fulfillments (like pot-smoking, and premarital babymakin’) but Hush has replaced those scenes of “fun,” with in-depth character development so you’re in Maggie’s corner from frame 00:00:01. It should also be mentioned that Hush’s inclusion of a deaf protagonist makes for a pleasant “twist” to the genre. Now, this wouldn’t be the first horror flick to feature a differently-abled character (see: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Friday the 13th Part 2, & Don’t Breath), or even a differently-abled protagonist (see: Curse of Chucky & George A. Romero’s Monkeyshines) but thanks to Kate Siegel’s performance and the film’s cleaver sound design I was genuinely terrified for Siegel’s character. There are some genuinely chilling moments where the killer’s in-frame but only we, the viewer, can see him. Speaking of which, John Gallagher Jr’s positively phenomenal as, “The Man,” who brings more charisma and creepiness to his killer than the majority of big-screen, stone-cold, mongoloid killers. Kate Siegel is an inaudible firecracker of a protagonist whose resourceful, likable, humanely competent, and at no point screams her head off like a banshee practicing for their Anthrax cover-band. The editing’s also better than you’d except from a film with a budget of 1-million USDs, with poignant bits of cleverness peppered in to evoke shock, terror, and dread. And wouldn’t you know it, Mike Flanagan, even edited the bloody film himself. I really have no complaints or critiques, not a single plot-thread’s loose or out of place. Hush is staggeringly, tip-top.
This is that rare, once-in-a-blue-moon, horror flick that adopts an overused, and overexploited sub-genre but strives to make itself decent, enthralling, and scary. The slasher film (as a whole) has become a parody of itself in recent years, but Hush does away with all the unnecessary horror-movie “fluff” that makes for a “pure” genre feature. It has all the ingredients of a slasher movie but with the esteem of a serious drama made by clearly passionate artists who care for this passion project. I’m surprised not more people know about Hush as it’s by far one of the better serial killer thrillers the 21st century’s produced (so far) so do yourself a favor and stream it for Halloween.
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