Movie Review

Hush Movie Review

In the terrifying movie Hush, a deaf woman living alone in her house in the woods is being hunted by a murderer. The main character, Penny, must fight for her life in silence while the murderer sneaks around her house. This movie encompasses all of the great characteristics of visual design, character, audio, and writing which are used to enhance the film.

The visual design in this movie is fantastic. The movie catches your attention right away with creepy music and a panoramic view of the woods that leads to Penny’s house in the woods. The film work is great throughout the whole movie. Because the main character is deaf, she didn’t hear the murderer when he first came. He was on her deck banging on her screen door and stabbing her neighbor over and over. The camera work was great here. It switched back and forth from showing it from behind the murderer so you could see what he is doing and him watching Penny cook through the window. Then it would switch and show penny cooking and just carrying on with her day while her neighbor is being murdered right next to her. The switches in views throughout the whole movie create suspense and fear and make you anxious to keep watching. The location of her house in the middle of the woods also adds to the creepiness of the film.

The use of audio in this movie was great. Because the main character is deaf, there isn’t a lot of verbal conversations taking place. When she facetimes or talks to people, they speak, but she signs. The important audio that they used was the background music and noises. The music was spooky and created fear. Every noise that a person would hear was made. When she was cooking, we could hear the food sizzling, but with dead silence in the background. When she would type, we would only hear the keys. The mixture of noise and silence and using everyday noises that we forget about added more drama. When we first found out she was deaf in the movie, the background music faded to nothing and the noises of her cooking disappeared. The movie was silent, and we just watched her living her life. It was a great way to show that she was deaf because it set the stage for the rest of the movie, showing that she cannot hear anything, even the sounds we hear everyday. .

Although the use of writing and dialogue was minimal in this movie because she was deaf, the conversations that she had in sign language and the messages on her phone and computer really enhanced the movie. She even used lipstick and wrote on her door, “Didn’t see face, won’t tell. Boyfriend coming home.” I think the fact that there was so little conversation and dialogue in this movie caused more fear.

Overall the characters did a fantastic job. The tone in the murderer’s voice and his body language were consistent and scary throughout the entire movie. The main character did a great job pretending to be deaf and didn’t look like she was faking. Although I couldn’t tell that the main character was faking, it still might have enhanced the film if the actor was deaf in real life. I thought all of the characters did a great job playing their roles, and the personalities of their characters seemed to come naturally to them.

Throughout the entire movie, the important characteristics of sound, characters, visual design, and writing were used very well. The use of background music and sounds of background objects, the great camera work, the portrayal of characters, and the text messages and sign language for conversation really enhanced the plot and overall appeal of this movie.