Directed by Mike Flanagan of
Oculus fame. Cinematography by James Kniest. And let's call out the sound editing team for a fantastic job on 'Hush'.
Mike Flanagan's 'Hush' is head and shoulders above most horror films. There's a technical expertise which eludes other progenitors of the genre. Mike and his crew are able to
inspissate the tension by eliminating conversation and amplifying natural sounds.
An early example of their proficiency is when Maddie is cooking. We hear an orchestra of boiling and baking and frying. Then they cut to a close up shot on Maddie and the sound dies. The camera travels the same path but with none of the cooking sounds accompanying each shot. And then back to Maddie. This way we not only gather she is deaf, but get a taste of her world. Flanagan calls back to this sequence a couple times to amplify tension.
John Gallagher Jr. pull off a nice bit of foreshadowing with the camera work in this cooking sequence. He positions Maddie on the left of the frame so we can see the glass door in the background. As the camera moves and the door takes up more of the frame, our eye wanders to it, expecting an
eldritch shape to appear.
The first killing, pictured below, is of Maddie's friend Sarah. It's a pretty blatant rape metaphor as he penetrates her with the knife over and over. She's pinned up against the glass, overpowered and venerable. This is a crime of power and control, two concepts which fuel his stalking of Maddie.
One way to go when setting up 'Hush' would have been to focus on her isolation in the woods. Lots of long shots and wide open staging. Flanagan wisely eschews this motif for closeups and medium shots. It makes the whole film feel more personal. He's targeting Maddie specifically because she's weak, not just because she happens to be there like Jason or Freddie would.
Above is an example of the main motif, the characters reflection in the glass. In this case it hovers over Maddie, a visual metaphor for how the killer views Maddie. His existence is strengthened by erasing her from the world.
All of the reflection shots culminate in the sequence where Maddie imagines her coaching herself to stay alive. It doesn't seem out of place because Gallagher has already introduced the reflections as important characters in 'Hush'. Without his subtle build this whole scene would have seemed awkward and out of place. This is the result when you meticulously design and plan out your shots to serve the script.
How good is 'Hush'? Steven King, who my grandmother called the sickest man alive,
tweeted out "Hush...up there with Halloween..." Highly Recommended by "the sickest man alive" and me.
