“… a tagline that puts asses in seats but then fails to deliver.”

In a world where a new horror film comes out practically every week, it is hard to set yourself apart from the crowd. As a filmmaker you either have to make a really good movie (piece of cake, right?), or make a movie that is very average and take one on the chin. Of course there is another option: make sure your movie has a gimmick. Now I know that saying something has a gimmick is usually meant as an insult, but I don’t mean it that way. I completely understand that setting yourself apart from the crowd is important, especially in a business as competitive as hollywood. I’m talking about all of this because last night I watched Hush. Hush is a horror/slasher film that came out recently and it’s gimmick is the fact that the main character is deaf. Sounds interesting doesn’t it? That’s exactly why I, like many others, watched it. I would love to be able to say that Hush was a “completely new take on a classic genre”, but unfortunately that would be a lie and I only lie when it benefits me directly. You see Hush is exactly what I said before, a gimmick. It’s a tagline that puts asses in seats but then fails to deliver.

Hush starts out very interesting, but also very basic. You have a woman living alone in the middle of nowhere in a nice house, but the catch is she’s deaf. When I originally decided to watch Hush I was expecting a completely different take on the Horror genre. I wanted to see a deranged killer subtly mess with a woman who has no idea that he is there because that is something that I haven’t seen before. Unfortunately that is a movie that I still haven’t seen. Like I said, Hush starts off interesting, but about 20 minutes in it shifts into neutral. Once the main character knows that there is someone trying to kill her, all of the suspense is gone and the film turns into your average horror film. As a matter of fact, it isn’t important at all that the woman is deaf until the very end of the film. It’s almost like the writers had a really good idea for a horror film, but couldn’t piece together what exactly happens in the middle so they opted for the tried and true method. It’s not that Hush isn’t a well made film because it is, it’s just that it was a real let down. Once that 20 minute mark hits the movie reduces itself to use terrible jump scares, and the classic “stupid protagonist” to build tension. I mean the ending was alright but it was the only time that the deaf thing really played a part in the narrative. Up until that point, the fact that the main character was an author played more of a part than the fact that she was deaf. I really don’t know what else to say. I enjoyed the movie on a technical level with the acting and the score (though I wish more of the movie was silent), but overall it was just disappointing.

Ultimately Hush is just a basic horror film with mediocre jump scares and a plot that seems like a bait and switch.

I give Hush a C