Hush (2016)
October 15, 2025 • Review • David
Mike Flanagan’s Hush is an intimate, exploration of survival and sensory isolation, elevated by Kate Siegel’s astonishing performance as Maddie Young, a deaf and mute novelist who lives alone in a secluded cabin in the woods. From the opening scenes, the film establishes her life of quiet self-sufficiency. We see her cooking, writing, and FaceTiming with her best friend Sarah, all underscored by the stillness of her world — a silence that is not peaceful, but fragile.
That tranquility is shattered when a masked intruder appears outside her home. What begins as a routine evening transforms into a prolonged, silent nightmare. Sarah is the first victim. In one of the film’s most devastating moments, she runs to Maddie’s door, pounding and screaming for help as blood soaks her shirt. The camera cuts to Maddie inside, completely unaware of the violence occurring just feet away. The audience hears the desperate cries, but Maddie’s world is utterly still. This contrast becomes the film’s central engine of dread, using sound, or the absence of it, to create unbearable tension.
