Hush (2016 film)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Hush
Hush 2016 poster.jpg
Promotional poster
Directed byMike Flanagan
Written by
Produced by
Starring
CinematographyJames Kniest
Edited byMike Flanagan
Music byThe Newton Brothers
Production
companies
Distributed byNetflix
Release date
  • March 12, 2016 (2016-03-12) (SXSW)
  • April 8, 2016 (2016-04-08) (United States)
Running time
81 minutes
CountryUnited States[1]
Languages
Budget$1 million[2]

Hush is a 2016 American slasher film directed and edited by Mike Flanagan, starring Kate Siegel, who also co-wrote the film with Flanagan.[3] The film co-stars John Gallagher Jr., Michael Trucco, Samantha Sloyan, and Emilia "Emma" Graves. It was jointly produced by Trevor Macy through Intrepid Pictures and Jason Blum through Blumhouse Productions.

The film had its world premiere at South by Southwest on March 12, 2016,[4] and was released by Netflix on April 8, 2016.[5] It received positive reviews from critics, who praised the performances and atmosphere.

The film has been remade twice in India, both released in 2019: Kolaiyuthir Kaalam (Tamil language) and Khamoshi (Hindi language).[6][7]

Plot[]

Maddie Young is a deaf horror author who lost her abilities to hear and speak after contracting bacterial meningitis at age 13. From the disease she suffered permanent hearing loss and temporary vocal cord paresis. Hoping to advance her writing career following her publishing release of "Midnight Mass" and receiving international critical acclaim, she leaves New York City and lives an isolated life in the woods with her cat. Her friend Sarah visits her one evening to return a copy of her book. Later that night, a masked killer with a crossbow attacks Sarah and chases her to Maddie's house. A bloodied Sarah bangs on the door shouting for help; she goes unnoticed by Maddie, and the man stabs Sarah to death.

The man quickly deduces that Maddie is deaf and decides to make her another victim. He sneaks into her house and steals her phone, which he then uses to take pictures of her and send them to her. Maddie realizes she is being stalked and tries to call the police, but the man cuts the power and punctures the tires on her car to prevent escape. Maddie writes "won't tell, didn't see face, boyfriend coming home" on the glass panel door with her lipstick. The man responds by taking off his mask and revealing his face and, upon learning she can lip read, taunting her with the threat of waiting to break in. He then taunts her with Sarah's corpse. Maddie uses her car keys to trigger her car alarm in an attempt to distract the man so she can retrieve Sarah's phone from her pocket, but is caught by him before she can grab it and quickly locks herself back inside.

While attempting to escape through the second story window, Maddie is shot in the leg by the man with a crossbow bolt, but she manages to knock him off the roof and steal the weapon. Sarah's boyfriend, John, arrives at Maddie's house looking for Sarah. The man poses as a police officer responding to a call, but John grows suspicious of him. He plans to attack the man from behind with a rock, but Maddie distracts him by banging on the window, allowing the man to stab him in the neck. As John bleeds to death, he puts the man in a chokehold to buy Maddie enough time to escape, but she realizes that she will either be caught or bleed to death - her only chance for survival is to kill the man.

Outside, the man threatens Maddie's cat with a knife before he is struck in the shoulder with a bolt. As Maddie retreats into the house, the man slams the sliding door on her wrist and crushes her hand beneath his boot. He allows Maddie to pull her mangled hand inside and close and lock the door. When he threatens to enter the house, Maddie writes "do it, coward" on the door with her own blood. As the man begins bashing the door in with a tire iron, Maddie uses her laptop to type up a description of the man and a message to her family. She then locks herself in her bathroom, armed with a knife.

Failing to break through the door, the man opts to crash through the bathroom skylight. Maddie does not notice him until he inadvertently breathes against her neck. She narrowly avoids his attack and stabs him in the knee. He follows her into the kitchen, where she blasts his face with insecticide and uses her visual smoke alarm to disorient him. He begins strangling her, but she finally kills him when she stabs him in the neck with a corkscrew.

Maddie retrieves her cell phone from the man's body and dials 911. As she sits on her porch steps while the police approach her, Maddie pets her cat and smiles.

Cast[]

Production[]

Nothing was known about the project until September 2015, when it was revealed at a buyers' screening which occurred at the 2015 Toronto International Film Festival.[8] It was revealed Mike Flanagan had directed and written the film, along with his wife Kate Siegel who also stars in it.[9]

On making the main character a deaf mute, Flanagan had said it originated from him wanting to do a movie "without dialogue".[10] The possibility of making the film entirely silent was briefly considered, but was soon abandoned when it was realized that building tension with this limitation would be "impossible" [10] Flanagan also noted that the target audience would not have been used to silent films and, as such, would "seek out every kind of audio stimulus anywhere else in the environment" or simply choose to not watch the film at all.[10]

The script itself consisted largely of scene directions, which Flanagan and Siegel developed by acting out in their own house.[11] The fact that so much of the script was based around Flanagan and Siegel's own house proved problematic for filming, as when they went to shoot the film in Alabama, they could not find a house similar enough to theirs and had to significantly alter the film's script.[12] Flanagan also found challenges in the single location and had to plan the cinematography to keep the film interesting to the audience, especially given the mute nature of the protagonist; to this end, Flanagan used a Steadicam to follow Siegel's every move, along with a boom mic and a spotter, to make the movement more "dynamic".[12] The resulting audio for these scenes could not be used and had to be redone in post, with Flanagan noting that the audio initially "sounded like a herd of elephants."[12]

To represent Maddie's world, various ambient sounds were used, such as the sound of ultrasound machines. Flanagan did not want to use pure silence for these scenes, as he still felt it would make viewers even more aware of their surrounding and take them out of the experience.[12] As a result of the aforementioned camera set in, Siegel had to ADR her own breath into the final film.[12] The film's soundtrack was composed by The Newton Brothers.[13]

Release[]

The film had its world premiere at South by Southwest on March 12, 2016.[4][14] Prior to the premiere, Netflix acquired worldwide distribution rights to the film, which it released on April 8.[15][16]

Reception[]

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 93% based on 40 reviews, with an average rating of 7.6/10. The site's critics consensus reads, "Hush navigates the bloody waters of home invasion thrillers and incisive slashers for a contemporary horror puree."[17] At Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 67 out of 100, based on reviews from seven critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[18]

Benjamin Lee of The Guardian said that Hush "offers ingenious suspense" and awarded it four out of five stars.[19] Geoff Burkshire of Variety, though criticizing the film's third act, called it "one of the more inspired concoctions to emerge from the busy Blumhouse horror-thriller assembly line in recent years."[20] Michael Gingold of Fangoria gave the film 3.5/4 stars, calling it "a good old-fashioned truly scary movie".[21] Jasef Wisener of TVOvermind gave the film a 4.7/5, noting that "Thanks to the performances from its two leads, Hush succeeds in almost every aspect and delivers one of the best horror films in modern history."[22] Richard Newby of the website Audiences Everywhere called the film "a modern slasher movie classic that's not to be missed."[23]

Stephen King wrote about the film on April 20, 2016, saying, "How good is Hush? Up there with Halloween and, even more, Wait Until Dark. White knuckle time. On Netflix."[24] Filmmaker William Friedkin, director of The Exorcist, also commented on the film, saying "HUSH is a great horror film...on Netflix. Terrifying."[25]

See also[]

References[]

  1. ^ "Hush (2016)". AllMovie. Retrieved June 28, 2017.
  2. ^ Mike Flanagan [@flanaganfilm] (26 October 2016). "@BlakeZ43 Alas Hush was 1 mil; Absentia was 70k. Got mixed up in a few articles. But glad you dig it!" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  3. ^ "Hush (2016)". IMDb. 8 April 2016. Retrieved 11 April 2016.
  4. ^ Jump up to: a b "Hush". SXSW.com. Retrieved March 11, 2016.
  5. ^ McNary, Dave (March 10, 2016). "Netflix Buys Mike Flanagan's Horror-Thriller 'Hush' Ahead of SXSW Premiere". Variety. Retrieved March 11, 2016.
  6. ^ "Kolaiyuthir Kaalam Movie Review: A textbook example on how not to make a slasher flick".
  7. ^ "Khamoshi Review: No thrills, no scares!".
  8. ^ Fleming, Mike Jr. (September 11, 2015). "Hush' Buyer Screening Leaves Buyers Buzzing: Toronto". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved March 11, 2016.
  9. ^ Mack, Andrew (September 12, 2015). "Toronto 2015: Mike Flanagan's 'Secret Project' HUSH Creates Buzz At Buyers Screening". TwitchFilm.com. Archived from the original on October 16, 2015. Retrieved March 11, 2016.
  10. ^ Jump up to: a b c Thurman, Trace (7 April 2016). "[Interview] 'Hush' Director Mike Flanagan and Actress Kate Siegel On Their New Thriller!". Bloody Disgusting. Retrieved 8 June 2016.
  11. ^ Peitzman, Lous. "Meet The Filmmaker Who Wants To Save Horror From Jump Scares". Buzzfeed. Retrieved 8 June 2016.
  12. ^ Jump up to: a b c d e Gingold, Michael. "Q&A: "HUSH" Director Mike Flanagan on the Scary Sounds of Silence". Fangoria. Archived from the original on 2 February 2017. Retrieved 8 June 2016.
  13. ^ "The Newton Brothers scoring Mike Flanagan's "Hush"". FilmMusicReporter.com. October 18, 2015. Retrieved March 11, 2016.
  14. ^ McNary, Dave (March 11, 2016). "SXSW Unveils Lineup With James Caan, Ethan Hawke, Keegan-Michael Key Movies". Variety.
  15. ^ Hipes, Patrick (March 10, 2016). "Netflix Acquires Micro-Budget Horror Pic 'Hush', Latest From Blumhouse & Intrepid". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved March 11, 2016.
  16. ^ Erbland, Kate (10 March 2016). "Netflix Buys Mike Flanagan's 'Hush' Before SXSW World Premiere".
  17. ^ "Hush (2016)". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango Media. Retrieved April 14, 2019.
  18. ^ "Hush (2016) Reviews". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Retrieved April 16, 2016.
  19. ^ Lee, Benjamin (April 14, 2016). "Hush review – nifty home invasion thriller offers ingenious suspense". The Guardian. Retrieved 2016-04-26.
  20. ^ Burkshire, Geoff (March 13, 2016). "SXSW Film Review: 'Hush'". Variety. Retrieved March 13, 2016.
  21. ^ Gingold, Michael (March 13, 2016). ""HUSH" (2016; SXSW Movie Review)". Fangoria. Retrieved March 13, 2016.
  22. ^ Wisener, Jasef (April 9, 2016). "'Hush' (2016) Film Review". TVOvermind. Retrieved June 13, 2016.
  23. ^ Newby, Richard (April 12, 2016). "Hush is Brutal and Nuanced". audienceseverywhere.net. Retrieved April 12, 2016.
  24. ^ "Stephen King Gets Loud About HUSH". Dread Central. 21 April 2016. Retrieved April 21, 2016.
  25. ^ @WilliamFriedkin (5 December 2016). ""HUSH is a great horror film...on Netflix. Terrifying."" (Tweet) – via Twitter.

External links[]

Retrieved from ""