Hush (2016)

November 8, 2018

Directed by: Mike Flanagan

Written by: Mike Flanagan, Kate Siegel

Starring: John Gallagher Jr., Kate Siegel, Michael Trucco

Budget: $1,000,000

Quote: "I can come in anytime I want. And I can get you, anytime I want. But I'm not going to. Not until it's time. When you wish you're dead... that's when I'll come inside."

Trivia: Contains less than 15 minutes of dialogue, meaning that more than 70 minutes occur without a single word spoken.




This film has been lauded by such horror luminaries as Stephen King and William Friedkin (The Exorcist) as one of the best horror movies, not just of the year, but of all time. I don't know if I completely agree with their enthusiasm, but it was a pretty cool movie based on a solid premise, the home invasion of a deaf woman. Director Mike Flanagan wrote the film with his wife, the film's star, Kate Siegel. What the duo offer is a great scary movie, in the classic sense, with no frills, jump scares, or even special effects. It is simply a straight forward movie, shot in one location, with only five actors, and very little dialogue. That being said, it is really impressive that the filmmakers could make so much out of so little because the movie has some really suspenseful moments and the tension builds and builds until it finally explodes at the film's climax.


The movie follows Maddie, a deaf author, whose friend is murdered outside her remote house by a masked killer. Intrigued and fascinated by Maddie, the killer begins tormenting her by stealing her phone, cutting the power, and toying with eventually killing her after having fun toying with her for a while. The killer also takes off his mask when Maddie writes on a window that she hasn't seen his face and if he leaves she won't call the cops. The next chunk of the movie has the guy continually trying to break into the house (she must have super windows or something?) and Maddie trying to break out of the house. However, the house is secluded in a forest making it difficult for her to escape. She does manage to cut him pretty good with a claw hammer before getting an arrow into her own leg. The next chunk of the movie is a race against the clock as she begins bleeding out. She decides to try and kill him instead of running. This climax closely resembles the climax to Silence of the Lambs except with deafness instead of blindness followed by a fight to the death throughout the house.

While not completely a horror movie, the film does effectively build in suspense (like a Hitchcock movie). Especially powerful are those moments when the protagonist's disability doesn't allow her to recognize the danger she is in that the viewer cannot help but notice. I also love the killer. At first I was thinking it was just going to be another masked slasher movie (a film subgenre that I do adore), but when the killer takes his mask off to reveal he is just an ordinary looking guy, it makes him all the more terrifying. The killer looks like he could be my next door neighbor making his terror hit home a bit more than a masked slasher. Also, the fact that the guy has no connection to his victims and no motive other than to torture these two women makes him a truly imposing force.

Another interesting narrative tool the filmmakers use to spice up the straight forward storyline is that by making Maddie an author we get to see possible narrative endings that she imagines. There is this cool part towards the end where she imagines running and is killed, then she imagines hiding and she bleeds to death, before deciding on killing the guy. Finally, the race against the clock as she quickly begins to bleed out really adds to the tension that the film expertly creates.

Overall, this movie hits as a really solid suspense thriller but would be largely forgettable as a horror movie. Great premise, well made, but more or less the same home invasion movie, except with a deaf protagonist.

...what's your thoughts?