Halloween Horrors resumes after a day off, and we find ourselves steadily approaching Halloween! As we prepare for this spookiest of days, we continue on with our collection of horror films to help us celebrate the holiday. Let’s get to our next entry.

Sometimes “horror” comes from something as simple as an invasion of space. Not to be confused with an invasion from space, which I also generally find to be quite entertaining, at least in cinematic form. The concept that “the killer is in the house” has been the basis of quite a few horror films, including the one being covered today. However, this particular 2016 film attempts to put a few new spins on the concept.

Our Halloween Horrors contributor today is another longtime friend of mine, Harriett Branch. Harriett returns to our Halloween series for a sixth year, this time sharing a few thoughts about 2016’s Hush, from director Mike Flanagan. She can frequently be found co-hosting The Original Spooky Guide with our previous contributor Dementia Von Grimm. 

 

 

You are deaf. You are mute.

You are alone in a house in the middle of the woods and some psycho is trying to kill you, and all of your means of communication have been cut off.

What do you do?

If you are Kate Siegel’s character, “Maddie”, in the 2016 film Hush, you only have one option.

I initially watched Hush on the streaming horror channel, Shudder, and had very little hope that it would be a decent film. It relies on a very tired horror trope and, let’s face it, Shudder’s track record isn’t that stellar. However, this was my introduction to Mike Flanagan, the new horror wunderkind director of recent successes like Netflix’s The Haunting of Hill House, and Doctor Sleep, the sequel to The Shining. I honestly had no idea what I was in for.

Hush opens with close-up images of someone cooking. That someone turns out to be Maddie. Maddie is deaf and mute and the way Flanagan illustrates this is simple, yet effective. In fact, the whole movie has only about twenty minutes of dialogue. Most of the film is captured in the action of the characters. Maddie is a somewhat successful first-time novelist and her success has brought her to an isolated house in the woods while she tries to write her next blockbuster. In the opening minutes of the film, we see how Maddie communicates with the hearing world. She is active on her phone and computer and can read lips and use sign language. How she came to have these disabilities is lightly discussed when her neighbor, Sarah, visits to tell her how much she enjoyed her first book. Sarah seems to be a true friend and is even learning sign language to be able to communicate with Maddie better. They share some quick conversations, and then Sarah leaves to go home. Little does Maddie know that Sarah will never go home again. Sarah has been brutally murdered and left at Maddie’s kitchen door.

Maddie goes back to work, attempting to write, contemplating a FaceTime chat with her ex, and then a video call with her sister.

During a video chat with Max, Maddie’s sister, Max says she sees movement in the background, behind Maddie. Maddie waves it off, saying it’s just her cat, Bitch. Since Maddie has left her door open in case her cat comes home, someone else has entered her house, and stolen her cell phone. Maddie ends her chat with Max and goes back to work. Then, she gets a notice on her computer. From her own phone.

Maddie decides to open it. Someone has taken pictures of her in her home, and they’ve just taken another one of her sitting as she is now. She gets up and walks to the open door and sees a man in a mask. He has a vicious-looking crossbow and admits to killing her neighbor, Sarah. Maddie writes on her kitchen window in lipstick, that since she has not seen his face, she will not contact the police. The Man then removes his mask and makes it very clear that he can come inside her house at any time, but is willing to enjoy toying with her.

What follows is a game of cat-and-mouse that Maddie realizes she cannot win. Through a series of clever and tense scenes, Maddie attempts to escape, but he shoots her with the crossbow. She eventually disarms The Man and injures him and then attempts to load the crossbow. Injured, scared, and alone, Maddie runs through her options – to run, to wait, or to fight, and she realizes that fighting is the only option. She records The Man’s description in her computer, says her goodbyes to her family, and tries to stay focused to fight for her life. The denouement is fitting, satisfying, and well worth the wait.

Mike Flanagan’s direction is effortless and yet still offers a tense horrific atmosphere for Maddie. Being all alone in one’s home while being chased by a psychotic stranger has been done to death in the horror genre, but he makes it seem fresh and the story is told linearly so that it is believable. It was written by him and the main actor, Kate Siegel, who is his writing partner, and wife. When they wrote this screenplay, they acted out the scenes to see how their characters would react. Hush is well- directed, well-acted, and well,….. well-executed. Mike Flanagan has since gone on to successfully direct the sequel to The Shining, and the Netflix hits, The Haunting of Hill House, and an episode of its sequel, “The Haunting of Bly Manor.” He is a very welcome director to the horror genre, and Hush is a fantastic watch.