Hush Trailer- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q_P8WCbhC6s
I've been hearing this movie being talked about a lot lately, and people are saying that it's really good, but I wanted to check it out for myself. I've run into cases where people rave over movies that I considered down right terrible, so that could be the same case for Hush, a thriller about a deaf woman who is being stalked and attacked by a mysterious stranger.
The premise alone made me want to watch it, but after hearing the constant reactions of other people singing this movie's praises, I needed to watch this as soon as I can so I can put in my two cents.
So was it everything like I expected it to be and it hushed my doubts on it by showing its splendor or was it a deadly killer to my enjoyment?
Like I said, Hush has a very interesting story. While the plot of someone tormenting a lone person in their home has been done often, adding the element of not letting the main character hear their attacker at all adds a major fear factor to the story and that's what makes this plot scarier than normal and what makes it a huge hit right now.
The deaf main character, Madison "Maddie" Young (Kate Siegel) is a young author who lives away from the busy city world and instead lives alone in a woodsy-type location with very few neighbors. The actress for this character wasn't bad at all, on the contrary, I admired how she was able to convey her emotions without speaking as well as performing actual sign language during the movie. That's new to see in film and it's admirable to see how the actress (and her friend/neighbor, Sarah played by Samantha Sloyan) can pull off sign language. Makes me want to try it out myself.
Although, I had a friend mention a very good idea to me. It would've been an even more intriguing scenario if throughout the entire movie they had the audience feel truly immersed in Maddie's world by not hearing the normal sounds like footsteps on the pavement or an alarm. I know they were trying to make us feel like Maddie by adding a few scenes where the audience couldn't hear anything, but if they kept that up for everything as well as stay just with Maddie's point of view, then the intensity of the movie would have increased significantly.
The other actors weren't too bad with their acting, I think they were pretty decent. However, there was one character I was absolutely disappointed in. That would be the one and only antagonist, the masked killer.
This masked killed (John Gallenger Jr.) turned out to be a complete let-down for me. In the beginning, the killer seems threatening and the audience would expect him to pull off some intense scenes, but for me that never came. He was a lack-luster killer and there's a twist in the movie that involves him that appears way too early in the movie and since there's no other twists during the rest of it, revealing a huge secret 25 minutes into the movie is a very bad move. It just makes everything else that happens boring and less suspenseful.
The movie goes on to be a generic cat-and-mouse game where Maddie must hide within her home while finding ways to call for help by figuring out what sounds to make to attract attention anywhere.
This was pretty interesting for a little bit, but at some point I began asking myself questions while the main character was running around. I growing more confused the more I looked at these two people fight with each other and I feel like in this situation, it doesn't work. We don't really get a character motivation for the antagonist, we don't know what he wants with Maddie. This part can be better explained in the spoilers section below.
This movie may have some downs but it did have a few creepy moments that had my heart jump, and not having a lot of characters in the production was a good move because it helps the audience fear for Maddie and believe that she may not have any hope of escaping without a nearby store to run to and closer neighbors and such. The movie also makes you believe that it would end in a way that would be totally out of left field. Do they really take that risk? I can't say. Not in the non-spoilers section anyways.
Hush definitely has its gems, it managed to scare me a few times and feel like a thriller. It left you unsettled and had a tense atmosphere, I wasn't entirely confident in how the story would end. But I think it's huge downfall was it's lack of giving any valuable background and that early twist. It demolished it from being one of those epic thriller movies.
I've seen people who praise the movie was being innovative, and that's for the main character being deaf. Yet, I feel like because of that big element, people seem to disregard the faults the movie has.
I would recommend this movie as a rental or something to watch on your laptop when you want to feel a little uneasy and to see why this movie is getting so much attention. But I wouldn't advise to buy it on DvD, this is what I would call a one-watch film; watch it one time and you have no desire to see it again.
WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD!
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The beginning of the movie introduces the main character and her conflicts, including how she debates on whether or not she should talk to her ex-boyfriend, Craig. She tries to*facetime him and later on, one of her friends talks to her online and explains how Craig and Maddie didn't speak for a year and so on. This is all before the killer comes out, but can you guess who the killer is by this point? Of course you do, anyone paying attention would. 25 minutes into an hour and 27 minute film, they reveal who the masked killer is and it's the boyfriend, Craig.
Actually, it's not the boyfriend, but I thought it was! It was just a regular stranger. But, this left me confused. Originally I thought it was the boyfriend because there was so much exposition for him that he must be involved in this story somehow. But nope, not at all, according to imdb.com, the killer is only referred to as 'The Man'
So now this just makes the character reveal even more confusing. Why take off the mask if there is no emotional connection between the killer and Maddie.
Plus, the pictures I find online of the movie show the killer mostly in his mask, even the poster has him in his mask, so you would assume he would be in that disguise for a majority of the movie! That disguise was actually frightening and left mystery, and if the movie would've waited for him to reveal himself at least in the middle of the movie, it would've made things so much better.
When the reveal came, it lacked any weight to it, meaning that since he hasn't tried chasing her a lot year or even harming her (as he does later on), it feels meaningless to see the man behind the killer.
At least if it was the boyfriend, there would be less confusion. There could have been more depth into why the boyfriend would try to kill her, but instead we have stranger-danger. This plot can work but I feel in this case it doesn't because you literally have no backstory. Is he insane? Did he have a vendetta? Why was he in the woods? Why was there no news about this?
I have a comment about the neighbor and friend, Sarah's death too. It was sad. That's just it, she begs for Maddie to turn around and see her to no avail. I'm glad Maddie didn't know that Sarah was calling for her before she died, it would've been painful and Maddie would've probably killed herself over failing her friend.
Wait a minute...you know what would have been amazing? Knowing Sarah died right at her doorstep because of her being deaf, that could really screw with her head...
Even after defeating the killer, she remembers her guilt of Sarah's death (and her boyfriend, John) and she feels that she's worthless. She doesn't feel helpful to her friends or to the world and she allows herself to bleed out to death and embrace the arms of death....
Now that would be something.
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Definition/s
Facetime- A video telephone/ video chat service somewhat similar to Skype and Google Hangouts that makes it possible to conduct one-on-one video calls between newer Apple iPhone, iPad, iPod touch and Mac notebooks and desktops. (Source- Webopedia.com)
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