Hush (2016) Review

Time: 81 Minutes
Age Rating: Sadistic violence
Cast:
Kate Siegel as Maddie Young
John Gallagher Jr. as The Man
Michael Trucco as John Stanley
Samantha Sloyan as Sarah Greene
Emilia Graves as Max
Director: Mike Flanagan

A deaf writer (Kate Siegel) who retreated into the woods to live a solitary life must fight for her life in silence when a masked killer (John Gallagher Jr.) appears at her window.

Mike Flanagan is one of the best horror directors working at the moment with Oculus, Ouija: Origin of Evil and would go on to direct Gerald’s Game (and is going to direct Doctor Sleep, the adaptation of the sequel to Steven King’s The Shining). Hush is no exception, its another solid and gripping horror flick from the director. Home invasion horror movies aren’t very uncommon but Hush still manages to be executed in a good way, being rather effective and tense, and it definitely deserves a lot more attention.

Hush is a straightforward horror movie, a masked killer is trying to kill the vulnerable but capable protagonist, conflict ensues. They don’t dwell too much on setting up the characters than it has to, but it’s not like things feel underdeveloped, its developed as much as it needs to be. The movie doesn’t do innovative things for the home invasion subgenre, but it still has its creative moments. It does have a unique aspect to it, with the protagonist being deaf, it could’ve just been a cheap gimmick to make it somewhat stand apart from all the other thrillers but the execution of the movie is done in a way that it doesn’t feel like that. There isn’t much dialogue in the movie, after the first scenes of the movie, it’s pretty much almost all visual from then on, and with that its done rather effectively. Hush is only 82 minutes long which was really the perfect length, it doesn’t drag on for an unnecessarily long time and the characters and story are simple enough that it doesn’t require a longer runtime.

Kate Siegel was great, likable and engaging as the lead, she has to do all the character work with pretty much just her body movements and you could really buy her as a deaf person. She was believably vulnerable and yet believably capable of surviving everything the antagonist throws at her. The unnamed masked killer, played by John Gallagher Jr. was good as well. He gives off an unnerving and creeping vibe, even when he has a mask on and is quite effective, despite not really having any reason or motivation behind his actions and goals in the movie. Those two are really the only notable actors, the other actors are fine enough in their roles but really their characters are just throwaways.

Mike Flanagan is no stranger to making horror movies, so it’s no surprise that he directed Hush well. As previously said, a lot of the movie relies just on visuals, and Flanagan was great at visual storytelling here. The tension is also done really well, you’re not quite certain which way things are going to go, there’s a real sense that our main character might not make it out. It also does not hold back at all with how brutal and violent the killer can be, really emphasising how dangerous he is.

Hush is quite an overlooked solid horror flick ever since it came out in 2016. It’s not like one of the greatest horror movies or anything (and I probably wouldn’t even say it’s one of Mike Flanagan’s best) but it is quite good and worth the watch if you like horror movies. It’s a decent and creative little thriller that deserves a little more attention than it’s being receiving.

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The Miseducation of Cameron Post (2018) Review

Time: 90 Minutes
Age Rating: Sex scenes, offensive language & drug use
Cast:
Chloë Grace Moretz as Cameron Post
Jennifer Ehle as Dr. Lydia March
John Gallagher, Jr. as Reverend Rick
Sasha Lane as Jane Fonda
Forrest Goodluck as Adam Red Eagle
Emily Skeggs as Erin
Melanie Ehrlich as Helen Showalter
Owen Campbell as Mark
Quinn Shephard as Coley Taylor
Marin Ireland as Bethany
Kerry Butler as Ruth Post
Director: Desiree Akhavan

In 1993 after teenage Cameron (Chloe Grace Moretz) is caught in the backseat of a car with the prom queen, she is sent away to a treatment centre in a remote area called God’s Promise. While she is being subjected to questionable gay conversion therapies, she bonds with some fellow residents as they pretend to go along with the process while waiting to be released.

I had been hearing about The Miseducation of Cameron Post for a while, it has Chloe Grace Moretz and involved gay conversion therapy (oddly enough not the only 2018 movie about the subject matter) and the movie was apparently really good. I wasn’t really sure what to expect outside of that. The Miseducation of Cameron Post is a really good movie and is really worth seeing by everyone.

The Miseducation of Cameron Post is based off a book of the same name by Emily M. Danforth, a book that is apparently quite good. I was really invested in the movie from start to finish despite the off-putting subject matter. I know that some people will be turned off because what this movie is about. When you hear the concept on paper, it sounds painful to watch but while it can be tragic and frustrating at many points (intentionally so), I still maintain that it really is worth seeing. It’s not as much of a heavy watch as you’d think it would be, even though it definitely is heavy in parts, and the emotional bits to the story really do hit hard. Yet it’s never heavy handing or overbearing either, it’s not shamelessly using shock value to provoke a response out of you or anything (not that there are a bunch of shocking moments or anything but you get what I’m meaning), it feels honest. I don’t know too much about the subject matter (aside from just hearing about it) but I am very aware of it, and watching the movie, they seemed to have handled it appropriately. My biggest negative of the movie is its length at around an hour and a half long, that’s really short and it feels like there was a lot more story that needed to be told. The ending is also quite abrupt and open ended, however I feel like it was the intention to leave things open ended. It’s more the length that bothered me, like it felt like there was a lot more story that is missing from the final film. By the time it was wrapping up, it felt like we only covered two thirds of the story at most.

The cast all around is great. Chloe Grace Moretz is a very talented actress and here she gives one of her best performances in the lead role. The other kids at the conversion therapy centre including Sasha Lane, Forrest Goodluck and Emily Skeggs are also good in their roles. Even the people running the therapy place with John Gallagher Jr. and Jennifer Ehle were really good and felt like real people despite their positions and their roles in the story.

The film was directed well by Desiree Akhavan, she actually directed (and also co-lead starred in) Creep 2, a very different type of movie which I also liked quite a bit. There’s not a lot to say about the direction really, it’s competently filmed and is just right for the story. Not to say that the direction is basic or anything, it’s at a level where it serves the script and the writing appropriately and is at the fine level of not being subpar but not being overwhelming either. The story is rather intimate film, mostly taking place in the conversion centre, and the direction accompanied that well.

The Miseducation of Cameron Post is a really good movie, tragic, funny, emotional and most of all really important. The performances and direction really elevate the movie even further. It really could’ve benefited a lot more from a longer runtime but it is still well worth a watch and is very deserving of all the praise.

10 Cloverfield Lane (2016) Review

Time: 104 Minutes
Age Rating: Violence & content that may disturb
Cast:
Mary Elizabeth Winstead as Michelle
John Goodman as Howard Stambler
John Gallagher Jr. as Emmett DeWitt
Director: Dan Trachtenberg

After surviving a car accident, Michelle (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) wakes up to find herself in an underground bunker with two men. Howard (John Goodman) tells her that a massive chemical attack has rendered the air unbreathable, and their only hope of survival is to remain inside. Despite the comforts of home, Howard’s controlling and menacing nature makes Michelle want to escape. After taking matters into her own hands, the young woman finally discovers the truth about the outside world.

10 Cloverfield Lane has been getting a lot of attention ever since it’s release, and I’ve been meaning to see it for a long time. Having seen it very recently, I can tell you, it deserves all the hype and didn’t disappoint. The film was very suspenseful, features great performances from Mary Elizabeth Winstead and John Goodman and was overall a very effective thriller.

I think I should state something first, I haven’t seen the original Cloverfield but from what I have heard from some people, 10 Cloverfield Lane doesn’t tie directly into it. So I should mention, don’t go into this movie expecting Cloverfield 2 or hold off seeing it because you haven’t seen the original, go into it as it’s own separate movie. Now, into the movie itself. This movie does flow slowly, and it’s a very contained suspenseful movie from start to finish. Throughout the majority of the film we don’t know what happened, whether they have been captured, rescued or what, and that was handed excellently. The third act in particular is very tense, I didn’t know how this film would end. I should mention that in the last act, there is a reveal/twist which will divide people. I personally liked it, but I felt like it was a little rushed, there wasn’t much of a transition, and I honestly kinda wished that they didn’t go in a certain direction with the plot. But it still worked.

Mary Elizabeth Winstead is great in this movie, this is probably the best performance I’ve seen from her so far. It’s very easy to like her as her character is very smart and capable, not making any dumb decisions that a lot of thriller protagonists would do. She’s actually thinking ahead of the audience. However the actor who really steals the show in this movie is John Goodman, he is so excellent in this movie, he was really unpredictable and kind of scary. It’s hard to pin down what he would do and when, and he is such an intimidating presence. He gave one of his all time best performances here, and that’s saying a lot. John Gallagher Jr. was the third major character in the film. Unfortunately for him, there’s not as much attention on his character but he was good with what he was given.

The director of this movie is Dan Trachtenberg and this is his first ‘big’ movie, and he has done such a great job with this movie, he has a promising career ahead of him, the direction of this movie was really great. This film is very tense and a lot of that is due to the direction. The cinematography was great, the soundtrack also was great, it really added to the tension.

I really liked 10 Cloverfield Lane, I didn’t know what to expect and I was quite satisfied with what I got. Now as I said earlier, I heard that this movie doesn’t tie into Cloverfield that much, so don’t have false expectations about this movie, whether you expect it to be a big sci fi thriller or a sequel to Cloverfield, don’t do that. Go into this movie expecting a great, slow paced, contained, suspenseful thriller about people surviving in an underground bunker.