Year: 2016
Director: Mike Falnagan
Cast: John Gallagher Jr., Kate Siegel, Michael Trucco
Run Time: 1 hour 27 minutes
MPAA Rating: R
Read my full review of Hush at Arrow in the Head.
Additional Notes: OK, phew. We’re safe from prying eyes. Here are some closing thoughts on Hush, which is by far the best film I’ve ever been asked to watch for Arrow in the Head. It almost feels like I’ve been promoted. I stand by my review (I mean, obviously – I wrote it), but I’d like to expand on a couple things I didn’t have space for.
First, the killings are few and far between, but they tend to have a brutality that certainly lingers in the mind. There’s not a ton in the way of gore, and much of it is comfortably kept in shadow, but the actual act of killing (no, not the dreary documentary) is generally well-captured, tense stuff that feels like it could belong in any number of quality original movies.
Second, the film actually has a subdued but prominent sense of humor in its dialogue scenes that works wonders at sneaking its characters into your heart. And when it’s Kate Siegel’s moment to transform into a femme fatale badass, she’s pretty freaking awesome.
Hush is probably the best possible version of itself that it can be, though I kind of wish for its sake that it were something different, because then it might be a real work of art. Mike Flanagan is two for two on movies with great concepts that I really want to like but can’t muster up an overwhelming enthusiasm for.
TL;DR: Hush is a generic but totally decent survival thriller.
Rating: 7/10
Word Count: 920
I liked Oculus a touch more than you, so I might have to check this out. (Flanagan's got another movie coming out this year too.)
ReplyDeleteFrom what you said, it does seem that it could have gone further with its deafness conceit; but then, that would be a hard sell for audiences, since it would be a silent film.
Above all, though, you reminded me that I still need to go watch Wait Until Dark, the blind girl home invasion thriller from 1967 with Audrey Hepburn and directed by James Bond's Terence Young. OK, the connection's a little tenuous, but it jogged my memory.
I encourage you to check it out! It's definitely not as cerebral as Oculus, but it's pretty effective!
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