Hush Review

Story:  A Deaf woman is stalked by a man, John Gallagher Jr. (10 Cloverfield Lane) in her secluded
home.

An interesting thriller thats directed by Mike Flanagan (Oculus) and has a nice limited cast. While the setting is nothing beyond familiar, a house in the woods, the premise is very interesting, a deaf woman stalked by a psychotic killer.

While Mike is a favourite director of mine, Oculus was beyond terrifyingly good, his work here is average as some of the characters are pretty stupid at times. There are two characters who come screaming for help of our lead heroine, who is DEAF!!! They seemingly forget this. Our lead also does some stupid things, like "SPOILER" the lead shoots the bad guy in the shoulder, does nothing, and she whines up loosing an arrow and getting a broken hand.

The character building is good and the intensity and visual flare is great, the characters are just stupid sometimes.

The Newton Brothers (composers) provide a good score, but slightly down from their excellent score for Oculus.

Sadly, while Hush has an interesting premise Oculus provided more of the scares and horror and Hush is an above average thriller which starts out good but gets silly when the lead is seemingly stuck in one spot and the characters start acting stupid.

Mike's second horror film is a good thriller just not as good as Oculus.

Rating: B

P.s The killer only wears the mask until the lead says something that leads him to getting rid of it. If the characters didn't act so stupid and the killer kept silent and wore the mask I would of liked the film a lot better.

10 Cloverfield Lane Review

Now, this is a movie I would categorize as both horror and science fiction. Starring Mary Elizabeth Winstead (A Good Day to Die Hard, The Thing (2011) and John Goodman (Monsters Inc, Argo) comes a thriller based mostly in a man's bunker. Its a real character piece that builds on tension rather than graphic violence, though things get more intense near the end.

 All the actors involved are at the top of their game. John Goodman plays Howard, a very mysterious character who you don't know much about. He adds to the tension and really digs into his role. He was very intimidating and real in this movie. Mary is also top notch as she starts out as a person trying to escape and then goes down the Ripley path and turns into a badass. We learn she's also an artist too which is cool.

I know people have been told that this has some connection to the 2009 docudrama titled Cloverfield and while its not a dead on connection, there is a surprise near the end that really turned the movie around.

John Gallagher Jr also plays the part as the other member who wanted to be let in to the bunker. He's a bit of a jokester/wild card. He does become friends with Mary's character Michelle and also helps her uncover a terrifying truth about Howard.

From start to near the end the movie plays straight up like the type of film Hitchcock would direct, even Bear McCreary does a fantastic job with the score. Keeping himself restrained an providing a very delicate and taught score. In a way the film also reminds me of Stephen King's The Mist as it also had a twist ending.

Lined with such discussion possibilities about how one predicts the end of the world and how people can trust one another. Its a great movie to discuss and peal apart its many layers.

With that, 10 Cloverfield Lane is a tension filled hitchcockian thriller with a surprising third act and is quiet the spring surprise!

Rating - A+