Review of Hush (2016) by Dirigiblepulp — 11 Dec 2016

This is a simple genre exercise, nothing more. Its premise is sound and uncomplicated -- a blind woman attached in her cabin in the woods all alone at night -- and the storytelling and characters basically non-existent in service of thrills and chills.

The problem is, it's competently made, but it offers nothing new outside its set-up. It's neither an interesting story/character study, nor some crazy new take on the genre, so tight and intense as to become profound in and of itself. It's pleasing enough and then forgettable.

My biggest gripe is that although the deaf angle provides a few unique scenes (including a ridiculous opening wherein her neighbor gets stabbed by a window right next to her which she doesn't hear, neglecting her peripheral vision which should be heightened) it doesn't matter nearly enough. It's forgotten for stretches and only serves as an easy way to let the killer sneak up on her. There's no tension from how much sound she's making as she's sneaking around, something she would have no way of gauging, or scenes where the audience is blanked into her silence (there's an occasional glitchy static sound meant to represent her hearing but it's not used for much) nor anything else completely unique like that.