Netflix Pick – Hush
The Netflix Pick is back to it’s origins with a recent movie that didn’t get the big theatrical release it deserved. Hush is a thriller about a deaf author whose solitary and peaceful life is interrupted by a deranged killer. The concept doesn’t sound like anything too special, what sets Hush apart from other horror movies is the quality and care it’s handled with. Sure, it falls into some of the typical horror/thriller tropes but Hush manages to rise above. Add in the quality acting displayed by the movies heroine and it’s clear why this thriller is the So Wizard Netflix Pick of the week.
Maddie (Kate Siegel), a young and promising author has moved away from her family and friends to live a quiet life in the woods. She isn’t totally cut off from the wider world around her until a mysterious masked man (John Gallagher Jr.) murders her friend and begins to prey on what he sees as an easy target. Maddie is seen as an easy target because she has been deaf since her childhood.
All too often horror movies, especially smaller ones, seem to be made with the attitude of shrugging off what makes movies of other genres ‘good’ and using the excuse that it’s a horror movie. Character development and a tight plot are pushed aside for buckets of karo syrup and torture porn (looking at you Eli Roth). Hush decided to go in a different, better, direction. While the cast is only a handful of people, the run time is a lean 81 minutes, and the film itself was filmed in an astonishing 18 days the less is more attitude really pays off with the suspense and excitement of this single location thriller.
The character development doesn’t take a lot of time but in less than ten minutes you get a feel for how Maddie lives and find her endearing. What is even more spectacular about her as a character and the movie itself is, yes she is deaf, but that is far from a defining characteristic in who she is. She is a young woman, intelligent, talented, and funny. On the flip side when the masked man shows up and begins to make her life hell, he is given the opposite treatment. Even in the credits Gallagher Jr. is only credited as Man. Having the villain and evil entity in a horror movie be unknown is the ultimate way to make it legitimately creepy.
Speaking of legitimately creepy and another reason why Hush is a thriller worth watching, the film doesn’t lean on cheap jump scares. The sound editing is a huge part of this. The soundtrack is peppered throughout but doesn’t run constant. It punctuates the scenes perfectly and is even more powerful since so much of the film is void of music. With a deaf protagonist the lack of sounds is a great way to build tension and also a great way to further attach the audience to the survival of Maddie. Even the opening studio logos are missing the underlying tones. When sound does strike the film it hits with a greater impact because of its absence.
As previously mentioned, Hush does fall into some typical horror movie tropes. The cat and mouse play between killer and victim is tense and well done. As the plot ramps up so does the predictability, at least to a degree. In any film the action has to come to a head. It’s part of the necessary three act structure of storytelling. The tension gives way a bit to a more base struggle and characters dig deep to find new strengths. Not entirely unrealistic, but definitely by the numbers.
Small nitpicking aside Hush is a great tense film without a huge investment. If you are even a casual fan of suspense, thrillers, and horror, Hush is definitely tight minimalist movie making you can enjoy and certainly appreciate. Hush is exactly what having a Netflix subscription is all about.
