Hush (2009) - 2.5/4

As of 2000 a new horror subgenre has been developing: the terror film. The terror film is not about displaying horrific imagery to the audience. It is not about brutal murders, arterial spray, gore. Such things are the release, the end of terror. The terror film withholds release as long as possible, usually to the end of the film. As such, terror films have a very small number of players. The protagonists will be constantly put in danger, constantly raising the sense of terror in the audience, but will always avoid serious injury until the finale. The Strangers is one of the most prominent and purest examples of a terror film. The recent Funny Games is a terror film. France's High Tension is a terror film. Vacancy, too, is a terror film. And so is Hush a terror film.

Much like The Strangers and Vacancy, Hush begins with a fighting couple. The traditional horror film has tended to tear apart happy families, or at least moderately 'together' couples. The terror film usually targets fighting couples, with the result that they end closer than they began. What sociological significance might this have? Whatever it is, the couple's fighting is a trite attempt at humanizing, providing depth, that isn't terribly effective. People who are defined entirely by their dramatic bickering are a shallow lot indeed. It earns some sympathy for the protagonist, Zakes Abbot, however, as his girlfriend is not only a shrewish nag but also cheating on him.

After being overtaken by a truck, Zakes (William Ash) notices, as the back panel accidentally opens a tad, that there's a woman caged within. He tries his best to get the police on the case to no avail. After his girlfriend disappears at a stop, he suspects she may have ended up in the back of the same truck and takes it upon himself to track the truck down and free his awful girlfriend (Christine Bottomley). Along the way he will naturally have several close calls with the mysterious trucker.

Hush offers little new to anyone who has seen The Strangers and Breakdown; but I have to admit it's a formula that works. The terror film is good at generating terror and Hush is no exception. They have never, however, been very good at making their characters sympathetic, which would help increase the sense of terror. There isn't really enough to Zakes to earn sympathy initially and I was almost pleased his bitchy girlfriend is kidnapped. But Tonderai throws so much at Zakes over the course of the chase that he earns our sympathy through sheer suffering, not unlike Jesus. Also not unlike Jesus, Zakes even ends up crucified and betrayed by a loved one. What could it all mean?

As is often the case with a terror film, Hush seems a little desperate to flesh itself out. The villain has to purposely play cat-and-mouse when the protagonist is in his grasp. The screenplay has to find things for the characters to do, as it were. Compare to Spielberg's Duel, the greatest road-terror movie ever made: Matheson's script keeps the activity flowing naturally, always making perfect sense. One never, in Duel, has the feeling something has been concocted to give the characters busy work.

Tonderai should be applauded, though, for finding a creative way of avoiding the cellphone problem. Most terror films simply have them die out or become broken. Zakes has a working cellphone all along, but the police are simply unhelpful. There is no way to pass the buck of responsibility. In Hush, it's between two men and the road.