Hush (2016) - A Clever Slasher with a Killer Premise

As anyone who frequently watches movies knows intuitively, a film is at its most tense and suspenseful when the protagonist is especially vulnerable. Whether you realized it or not, filmmakers have been using this axiom of storytelling to make you squirm and grip the arm of your chair since the beginning of time.

But you know this. When are we most concerned for Harrison Ford? It's not when he's teaching archaeology to a classroom full of heavy-eyed college students. It's when he's being dragged along a dirt road by a Nazi military truck after having been shot in the arm and plunged through the glass windshield.

We are inherently more engaged in the movie-watching experience when we feel as though the main characters are facing a legitimate threat, and that there is an actual present danger to their life and well-being.

This is what makes the premise of Hush so ingenious. The protagonist of our story, Maddie, is a deaf-mute who lives by herself in the middle of the woods. This is about as vulnerable a character as you will encounter in fiction. So when a masked killer shows up at her front door, we understand how precarious and dangerous the situation is, and we are immediately thrust into a state of unnerving suspense.

Hush was co-written, directed, and edited by Mike Flanagan, a veteran of the horror genre. Flanagan's chillers are known for relying on character-driven, organically-built tension rather than jump scares, and Hush is no different. The uneasiness that the viewer feels stems entirely from the seemingly hopeless circumstance that our disadvantaged protagonist finds herself in.

The film is not without a few hiccups and questionable narrative decisions that I thought weakened its overall effectiveness. However, Flanagan and co-writer/wife Kate Siegel - who also stars as our leading lady Maddie - pack a few genuine surprises into the movie's breezy 81-minute run time. They also admirably attempt to give Maddie a nice little character arc that ties the story up satisfactorily and provides just a smidgen of emotional resonance.

If you're looking for a quick, undemanding thriller that gets the job done without any fuss, Hush is a perfect choice, and it's on Netflix right now. It doesn't break any particular cinematic ground, but it's a tight, slickly made flick that is sure to get your pulse pounding.

B+

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