Hush: En route vers l'enfer

Having been one of the lucky ones to have spent considerable time on UK motorways at night (and specifically the M1) I was immediately intrigued by the locale for this debut horror from Mark Tonderai. For me the originality of setting alone sets this horror apart from the countless tired horror locations: the haunted house, the woods, the abandoned hospital, etc, etc.

Overall the film is a fairly nuts-and-bolts by-the-numbers horror, which deserves credit for the originality of locale, decent performances, slick direction, with a few genuinely tense set-pieces (particularly the final showdown set-piece, which stands clearly above the rest). However, it is fairly unambitious with character detail (after the opening argument), and there are a few of the usual (and easily avoidable) horror clichés - we even get the hiding in the toilet cubicle sequence (albeit with a slight variation).

You get the sense that Tonderai had his set-up and finale worked out fairly early on but didn't know what to do with the story in between. The central third, while featuring a few decent scenes with the police, takes a couple of left turns into co-conspirator territory, alluding to a networked operation. The scenes with the security guards and the 'escaped' girl feel like they were put in to fill time and up the body count rather than deepen the story as a whole. Personally I felt that a more stripped-down lone bad-guy approach would have been strong enough.

The film owes something to Spielberg's 'Duel' in theme and narrative drive (no pun intended), and there are similarities in tone to the marginally superior Australian horror 'Wolf Creek'

Hush, which comes from ex British radio DJ Mark Tonderai (who has also done some small time writing and acting gigs in the past) is an example of the kind of film that excels in areas whilst disappointing and aggravating in others. Taking on the project as both writer and director, Tonderai succumbs to too many short-cut decisions during both tasks which results in an uneven, sometimes overly derivative and cumbersome picture, but also one that is very good at playing to its strengths. The resulting experience when watching Hush then is one of subtle engagement—there are times when you'll be annoyed at decisions made by characters fictional and non, yet this too often works in favour of the film. When taken as a simple thriller, Tonderai's directorial debut succeeds; it may not be the biggest most progressive outing for the genre but it's still got a certain conviction that allows it to hurtle on regardless; careless and somewhat bold.

The same can equally be said for the movie's protagonist who comes in the form of young adult Zakes Abbot (William Ash); an obnoxious, moaning git, basically. Doing his rounds along the M1 with his disgruntled girlfriend as he posts posters on service station bathrooms for some cash while he "works on his book", Zakes inevitably winds up on the wrong side of the road after he stumbles across a truck with a hostage in the back. After having a fight with girlfriend Beth (Christine Bottomley), both eventually go in separate direction whereupon Beth, predictably, goes bye-bye when the same truck stops in for a breather. From here on in, Zakes does the movie a large portion of justice by limiting his vocal contributions to mere screams as he strives to find his girlfriend and stop the maniac who has taken her captive.

Sound familiar? Well, yes, because it is. Countless movies deal with the same basic premise—some which work, some which don't. For all intents and purposes, Hush's story doesn't really work, unfortunately, but that doesn't exactly kill the feature. To director Tonderai's credit, the amount of suspense that is delivered over the course of the movie's ninety minute runtime is palpable. Particularly impressive as a result is the movie's final act which essentially acts as one extremely long sequence of chase between Zakes and his girlfriend's captor. There are some clever devices here and there that do help flesh the whole thing out, yet the basic enjoyment factor here is that pulse-pounding threat that Tonderai builds and builds throughout; it can be exciting, and therein lies one of only two highlights to Hush's palette.

The other highlight lies in the performance of William Ash who—although a little dubious when delivering some lines at the beginning of the feature—sells his fear amicably. For a movie such as this where the viewer's only real link into the psyche of this horror of sorts is through the central character that it's all happening against, Ash does a nice job of keeping that boat alive and breathing above water. This, in tow with Philipp Blaubach and Theo Green's contributions in the form of photography and music respectfully ensures that Hush is punctuated by a realist tone throughout which works well to its advantage.

Despite these areas where Tonderai manages to squeeze moments of suspense and engagement out of his otherwise tepid script however, Hush can be a flat and banal experience—most prominently during the movie's first act. Built upon a mountain of derivative clichés, ridiculous plot twists and dead-end sequences that go nowhere, the narrative that exists to propel the character of Zakes is unfocused and a little short on fresh ideas to the point where the guy's name is the only real original element inherent to it's existence. To this end, Hush irrevocably wastes the above strengths on such short-sighted laziness. Not only is it disappointing, but it's frustrating too. Somewhere within the murky excess of Tonderai's script lies a genuinely seamless experience where suspense is king and plot moves, but not erratically and without clear direction. Unfortunately however, such a movie never quite surfaces and instead, Hush concedes to being an interesting but irksomely forgettable mash of thrill with nil.

• A review by Jamie Robert Ward (http://www.invocus.net)

"Only you saw it. Only you can save them" the tagline reads. This is more or less the theme of this British thriller. Zakes Abbot (William Ash) spots something rather disturbing on the road, a woman caged in the back of a van, and has a dilemma of whether to follow and help or shrug it off as someone else's problem. After a small effort of calling the police and attempting (and failing) to read the dirty number plate, Zakes chooses the latter. That is until his girlfriend goes missing and he realises he has a more personal stake in pursuing the captor.

What follows is a fairly straight-forward cat & mouse chase as Zakes tails and evades the villain simultaneously, bringing to mind the 2003 French thriller High Tension (AKA Switchblade Romance) which as you might expect with that title is essentially one long suspense sequence. The tension in Hush doesn't quite allow it such a cocky title as the French film, but it is a good attempt nonetheless and it provides a few "No don't go there!" or "He's behind you!" moments. The film does however contain almost all the horror clichés, and although it tries to subvert one or two, this is nothing new and horror fans will see everything a mile off. As far as the plot goes, it would have been acceptable as a simple chase-thriller if it weren't for one scene (involving the security guards) which just seemed unnecessary and too contrived even for this already improbable story. Still, at 90mins it's an easy, enjoyable thriller that's worth a watch.

From a pure enjoyment standpoint, the movie is fairly entertaining. From a technical standpoint, it's got a lot of issues. I had a hard time not focusing on them.

This movie is plagued with bad production. Right off the bat, after the opening title sequence, the opening scene with a car speeding down a highway is frozen and then starts. This is obviously an editing blunder.

There were some scenes which looked to be horribly edited in post. For instance, a scene in which the two main characters are speaking across a table. Normally in film or video, the focus shifts from one to the other as they are speaking. This is done in-camera during the filming process. Not here. The effect in this movie was obviously done in post and horribly at that. One half (almost exactly) is so blurred it's distracting. This causes the opposite affect it was used for in the first place; to place the viewers attention on the important subject at the time. A decent production would not have tried to fix this in post, it would have been re-shot. It seems like the footage was not viewed until the whole movie was shot.

Here's a suggestion, get a tripod! There are times when a scene calls for the hand held shaky look, but not during a seated conversation! I was getting a headache. Terrible.

Someone else commented on the lack of sound during a point in the movie. This was definitely not the time or place to try an effect like that. I seriously doubt it was on purpose.

The movie also suffered from doing a very poor job at explaining why or how things were happening, for instance the guard scene. Did I miss something? This reminds me of a decent school type project. Beyond that, it doesn't hold production value for a serious movie.

By the way, this movie's description makes it sound an awful lot like Steven Spielbergs DUEL. Is it a coincidence that HUSH has four letters in its title? I think not. Duel is much, much better.

I find it amazing how people get very critical about films which in some cases weren't advertised as big block busters. OK this isn't going to win any Oscars but hey its wasn't as bad as some people think. I do find these films frustrating sometimes when you dissect them and say well i wouldn't have done that but hey if that is the case then tell all those idiots who still swam with Jaws and still go to holiday camps. It had suspense and some good moments, i thought it was better than i was lead to believe and wouldn't recommend it but if you do hire it then you wont be too disappointed and just enjoy it for what it is a low budget film with some good moments.