Hold Your Breath

I just finished watching Hold Your Breath (2024) and man this movie was a very dull and boring experience.

Positives for Hold Your Breath (2024): Sarah Paulson gives a great performance as the main protagonist in this movie and she is the reason why I watched this movie in the first place. There was some intrigue to be had with this gothic old folk horror movie set in the country side during the 1930s. And finally, there is some great camerawork and sound design throughout the runtime.

Negative for Hold Your Breath (2024): Aside from Sarah Paulson, none of the characters are interesting and they are very bland. The movie also doesn't do anything with its premise or the main villain. And finally, the movie is very predictable by the time you reach the climax.

Overall, Hold Your Breath (2024) is a interesting horror movie with its premise, but it ends up being very generic with its execution.

Feel free to ignore this poor rating on imdb, the movie only has it because most people won't watch anything horror-labeled that isn't greenscreen slop and/or cheap jump-scare galore.

In other words, this film has such a low rating because it is advertised as horror, and it is not, or at least not in the classic sense, but rather a depressing-disturbing psycho-thriller/drama, with hints of horror.

Apart from that misleading classification, I have nothing to complain about, it's beautifully filmed and fantastically acted - Sarah Paulson knocked it out of the park, and Ebon Moss-Bachrach (the goofy brother from The Bear) is not far behind. The direction and the script are generally good, there are some small kinks here and there, but really nothing terrible.

The setting - a dust storm in the backwoods of 1920s Oklahoma - is really something I haven't seen very often (outside of Courage the Cowardly Dog), and it gives the film a special atmosphere of hopelessness.

The movie is not light popcorn fun, in fact, it's really messed up and depressing, but it's also great, something I'd recommend to serious movie buffs as well.

Despite a really interesting concept and some really good camerawork, Hold Your Breath is once again an horror movie that doesn't really do a good job on being creative with it's interesting concept and ends up feeling basic, dull, and predictable in it's way.

Gothic and old folk country side horror is interesting and there are some good camerawork and sound designs throughout. Unfortunately, it's awful color presentation, bland writing and uninteresting characters doesn't really do a service to it's creative setting. The performances are solid and Sarah Paulson continues to be great with her personality and emotional depth acting.

For a first time directing, I can see the filmmaker having some talents and passion within this movie. But there is a lot of work to be done.

This is an excellent movie. Some may be looking for special effects with a ghoul floating around, but is a psychological horror. Its right on par with most other great psychological horrors and thrillers. I cannot believe the low scores... people..open your minds, horror and drama and thriller are not just about you jumping off your couch at every moment.

Sarah Paulson is as always excellent, not just for her acting but also for her input in producing this movie. Its fresh, albeit a bit slow, but thats where you as a viewer need to understand and feel the story and experience the movements of a movie. For the nay sayers, who give this a low score because they didnt see a ghoul floating outside in the sand, I say get your popcorn and watch the big bad wolf...the cartoon version.

The premise for "Hold Your Breath" seemed promising and the fact that the movie has an R rating and Sarah Paulson as the lead character made me curious. Sadly there is not too much going on in this Psychological Thriller. Apart from the setting and the performance of Paulsen, there's not much to be seen here. You are introduced to the same tropes that we see over and over again in this genre. The characters aren't interesting enough to make me really care about what happens which is not the fault of the actors by the way because the overall acting was pretty solid. However the movie definitely has a pacing problem and even the end was not able to redeem the viewer. The movie isn't terrible but I was really hoping for more and not this clichee-filled and rather forgettable movie. [4,9/10]