Taglines: When Jackson brought home his new bride, she was everything a mother would kill for.
Hush movie storyline. HJonathan Darby made his directorial debut with this thriller, set in Kentucky (but filmed in Orange County, VA). Jackson Baring (Johnathon Schaech) wants his girlfriend, Helen (Gwyneth Paltrow), to meet his mother, Martha (Jessica Lange), so he brings her home for Christmas to Kilronan, their sumptuous Kentucky estate and horse farm.
Later, after Helen gets pregnant, they marry and return to Kilronan to have the baby, but Martha aggressively intrudes and manipulates, telling obstetrician Dr. Hill (Hal Holbrook) how to deal with the birth and forbidding Helen from seeing Jackson’s invalid granny, Alice (Nina Foch). After learning some of Martha’s past history from Alice, Helen soon decides she must make an escape from her demented mother-in-law.
Hush is a 1998 American thriller starring Jessica Lange, Gwyneth Paltrow, Johnathon Schaech, Nina Foch, Hal Holbrook, Debi Mazar, David Thornton, Richard Lineback, Faith Potts, Tom Story and Jolene Carroll.
Film Review for Hush
here are plenty of reasons to be entirely uninterested in the arrival of Hush. First, it’s yet another tale of home invasion, a subgenre overly populated with substandard variations on the same damn story. Second, it’s from the Blumhouse stable, a production company that’s been spreading itself far too thin of late with pointless remakes (Martyrs) and dreary sequels (Sinister 2) threatening a once-strong brand name. Third, its rather unheralded premiere on Netflix suggests something of a stinker.
But it’s almost as if director Mike Flanagan, who broke out with the promising yet ultimately unsatisfying evil mirror chiller Oculus, is entirely aware of any reservations we might have and sets himself the task of proving us all entirely and embarrassingly wrong. For Hush is a hugely effective film and a much-needed reward for horror fans, understandably wearied of lazy studio product.
The setup is simple: Maddie is a deaf author, living in a remote house in the woods, settling in for the evening. She’s trying to finish her latest novel while avoiding distractions, such as calls from her ex-boyfriend. But there’s someone outside: a masked intruder with an arsenal of weapons, and Maddie has to figure out how to keep him out and then how to escape.
And, well, that’s it. But what ensues is a seat-edge battle between the pair, expertly played by the film’s co-writer Kate Siegel and 10 Cloverfield Lane’s John Gallagher Jr, that works because it’s grounded in reality. The resourceful heroine is plucky without resorting to superheroics; we buy into her reactions and thought processes as she tries to figure out how to survive.
It’s a sharp, finely tuned thriller that goes down familiar paths but with flair and skill. Flanagan doesn’t hold back on the gore, but he doesn’t rely on it. He’s a rare modern horror director who still prioritises suspense, and he frames the tense altercations between the pair to maximum effect. The film fondly recalls the sheer terror of the endlessly copied opening to Scream. Siegel’s fear feels horribly real and she posits you directly in her situation, wondering how you might fare in a similar ordeal.
It’s not without flaws. Given the territory, there are a couple of box-ticking cliches, but in a brutally efficient 82 minutes, Hush is exactly what it should be: lean, scary and skilful enough to temporarily restore your faith in the horror genre.
Hush (1998)
Directed by: Jonathan Darby
Starring: Jessica Lange, Gwyneth Paltrow, Johnathon Schaech, Nina Foch, Hal Holbrook, Debi Mazar, David Thornton, Richard Lineback, Faith Potts, Tom Story, Jolene Carroll
Screenplay by: Jonathan Darby, Jane Rusconi
Production Design by: P. Michael Johnston, Thomas A. Walsh
Cinematography by: Andrew Dunn
Film Editing by: Lynzee Klingman, Robert Leighton, Dan Rae
Costume Design by: Ann Roth
Set Decoration by: Michael Seirton
Art Direction by: James F. Truesdale
Music by: Christopher Young
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for some violence, sensuality and brief strong language.
Distributed by: TriStar Pictures
Release Date: March 6, 1998
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