As October winds down and spooky season ends, it is hard to find that one last scary movie to watch with friends or by yourself.
Netflix has a variety of scary movies, ranging in rating and style of horror, so sometimes picking a random film and watching it can be the best bet.
This week’s movie in the spotlight is the 2016 American slasher film, “Hush.” Starring Kate Siegel as the protagonist, Maddie, “Hush” takes the perspective of a disabled person’s independent life.
As mentioned, but not shown, Maddie suffered from bacterial meningitis as a young teenager. As a result, she lost her ability to hear and to speak through complications in a surgery that was supposed to help her. However, this did not stop her from becoming a wonderful author and publishing her life story.
She eventually moved away from her family in the big city to a quiet little area in the woods. Luckily, Maddie is not completely alone. She has her pet cat, a new friend and neighbor who goes by Sarah and her potential killer.
After an atrocious disaster while trying to make a new recipe, Maddie decides to clean up the huge mess she has made.
Scraping the pots of the burnt and unwanted food into the garbage, while running the water, Maddie did not notice that her new friend was banging on her door for her life.
Cut to the scene where the guy in the mask stabs Sarah multiple times and kills her. Maddie does not hear and does not notice.
How could she notice? Hearing is a very important sense in trying to help you and a friend escape murder. Or is it?
Unlike other horror movies out there, “Hush” puts into perspective how a person with a hearing disability can try to survive an aggressive attacker.
At first it seems like the movie would be predictable like any other slasher, with friends dying and the protagonist trying to get away.
However, this plot has a twist that makes the viewer stand on edge, wondering how this woman is going to escape.
Earlier in the day, Sarah had visited Maddie to return her novel and ask how she was able to write an amazing and unpredictable ending. Maddie explains to her that she has this voice in her head that can spout out different outcomes of her endings. This voice is why Maddie was able to survive.
All the possible outcomes and potentials for escape rattled on throughout her head, all ending in a disaster. Did she even make it out alive with a killer having an advantage of hearing?
The film was great; however, it seemed to have important details that were glossed over. The fact of her hearing the voice was mentioned once, and only shown twice.
If it was important enough to make it into a big detail, then the directors should have included more scenes with it.
For instance, in Robert Downey Jr.’s “Sherlock Holmes,” one of the most fascinating details was how the character could picture fights before in his head. If the directors of “Hush” could have implemented Maddie using the voice more, I think the success rate of the film could have been higher.
Despite this little inconvenience, the movie was wonderful. It is refreshing to throw a new perspective into a slasher film. Hush is now available on Netflix for streaming.