Hush (2016)

2016
Directed by Mike Flanagan
Starring Kate Siegel, John Gallagher Jr. and Michael Trucco

Ladies and gentlemen, allow me to introduce you to Mike Flanagan, a.k.a. the Next Guy That I'm Going to Curse By Labeling Him as 100% Sliced Awesome.  For some reference, the last two guys that I've deemed worthy of this prestigious honor were M. Night Shyamalan and Quentin Tarantino (circa 2005-ish).  But then again, a lot of people still dig Tarantino's movies, and I seem to be in the minority with the opinion that everything he's done since Kill Bill has been a mammoth disappointment.  But anyway...Mike Flanagan!  So far, we've had Oculus, the first bona-fide four-star horror movie I'd seen in ages.  Scary, dramatic, surprising, it was like the cinematic equivalent of Ninja Gaiden.  Hush, while not QUITE as good, is like Ninja Gaiden II.  So the moral of the story is...the NES rules, and Mike Flanagan is f**ked, because I'm a fan.

If there was an ounce of justice in the world, THIS would be the movie that Blumhouse Productions pimped the hell out of in theaters.  Instead, we get treated to all of the Sinister sequels and the scores of other ghost movies that flood the multiplex while this gets shipped straight to Netflix.  It's a real shame, because Flanagan had a concept here that was aces.  The execution is almost as good, and the villain?  BRRRRRRR.  When I'm breaking out some of my favorite used-to-the-point-of-delirium phrases this early in the review, you know this shit is good.  With that, let's get to the flick.

I've seen movies with deaf protagonists before, but I don't know if it's ever been done as effectively as it is here.  Yes, folks, that's the crux of your story, as we meet novelist Maddie Young (Kate Siegel, who takes on this challenging role like a hooked sturgeon).  She lives like one would expect in a movie like this.  Isolation, loneliness, they're all themes that are broached on but not harped on to the point where you quickly get sick of them.  She's had one book published and is struggling like f**k to get the second one flying, even going to the trouble of typing "I'm a shitty writer" at one point.  I can relate.  I've typed similar things at points, including once or twice while writing reviews just like these.

Anyway, this movie wastes no time getting to the good stuff.  Enter the mysterious masked psycho, or MMP for short.  He claims a victim in Maddie's neighbor/friend, he's proficient with a crossbow, and he very quickly realizes that he's dealing with a new potential victim with a serious disadvantage.  The script shows some great creativity as the dude steals Maddie's cell phone and begins sending her photos of herself.  That's when the psycho unmasks, and it was a good move, because we get the performance of John Gallagher Jr. for the remainder of the film.

Folks, while Siegel is something else as the deaf and very sympathetic heroine...this is Gallagher's movie, hands down.  It's role that would definitely be very prone to overacting.  This guy doesn't.  He comes across like someone who's very happy doing what he's doing, but he never cheeses it like, say, Johnny Depp would do in a similar predicament.  Speaking of...that' actually one role that I wouldn't mind Depp taking.  A totally psychotic mass murdering killer.  It would be miles different from the usual "look at me, I'm goofy!" guy that he does in every other movie, but I digress.  Flanagan's script paints the guy as a totally unrepentant opportunistic killer, and Gallagher makes you hate this guy's guts.  And as the game between him and Maddie escalates, you really, REALLY want this creep to get what he has coming to him.

I'll admit that some of the stuff here is a little hokey.  Essentially, the bad guy could just come into the house anytime he wants.  He doesn't, both for the sake of suspense and for the sake of elongating the running time.  The movie also loses a LITTLE bit of steam when the neighbor's boyfriend shows up.  It wouldn't be that much of a problem, but there's this talking scene that just goes on FOREVER during this sequence where the payoff to it is just a little too telegraphed.  It's a minor complaint.  The way that this movie makes use of Maddie's deafness, amping up the suspense of an already suspenseful situation and actually making us sympathize with characters after he did this extremely well in Oculus...yeah, I'm cursing the guy again.

Finally, I have to give the movie props for another thing - the fact that Maddie is a strong, fighting female, and the script DOESN'T ram it down our throats that she's a strong, fighting female.  She's a character first, female second.  So +2 cool points to the movie there.

Overall, I highly recommend this flick, and it's definitely worthy of a *** 1/2 out of ****.  I just wish that the powers-that-be would give more movies like this a chance.  Creative, genuinely scary and even emotional at points...nope, instead you'll get Ghost Movie #4000 and like it, dammit.  I guess one could compare these tables of Hollywood executives to Vince McMahon, but they're nowhere near as sexy as he is.