Hush
Mike Flanagan has quickly become one the most popular up and coming horror film directors on the circuit, so much so that later this year he will helm horror blockbuster Ouija 2, a film that’s very likely to become a mainstream hit. Flanagan’s last film was Oculus, which smartly blended time in many different eras into one scene (there’s a superb, somewhat similar scene in this one), his next film, Hush, went straight to Netflix, but that certainly doesn’t diminish the film’s quality.
Hush, a home invasion thriller about a deaf author fighting off an invader, is similar to the Audrey Hepburn film Wait Until Dark where a disabled victim (in Hepburn’s case blindness) fights off her intruder(s). The film’s protagnist’s deafness increases her vulnerability, and the film is one that’s powered by its somewhat unique property as Flanagan cleverly empathises the importance of sound in everyday life by emphasising every small sound and how it can contribute to our survival in our most desperate situation. Kate Siegel’s performance is excellent as she carefully tows the line between resourceful yet vulnerable and her game of wits with her intruder really drives up the tension in this tense thriller where Secret Window meets The Strangers.
