So, I'm all caught up on "Big Brother." While Chelsie wasn't my favorite on the show (I will never forgive T'Kor for getting rid of Tucker,) she owned the second half of that season. Makenzie taking Chelsie instead of Cam is like the Hornets trading Kobe Bryant for Vlade Divac. Or sticking with this theme, Vlade drafting Marvin Bagley III instead of Luka Dončić, another thing that will be forever unforgiven. I don't have a good transition, so let's jump into...
Hush (2016)
I haven't seen all of his work, but I love a lot of Mike Flanagan's stuff. You look at what he's done; he has some fantastic movies and shows. It's hard to make a sequel or prequel better than the original, but he managed to make a movie that absolutely blew the original out of the water. Ouija: Origin of Evil is terrifying while the first one was a forgettable bore. There are some sequels I'd argue that were better than the original, but there will be just as many who disagree. The hill I die on is that Aliens is better than Alien. But for the Ouija movies, I don't think anyone in good conscience can disagree. Maybe that's the secret, just make a sequel to a bad movie and there's nowhere to go but up.
Let's get into Hush. A writer who is both deaf and mute is dealing with some writer's block. While cooking dinner, her friend and neighbor came over for a visit. I have to say, I loved their friendship. It was sweet and adorable and felt authentic. I loved the two of them and enjoyed their dynamic. It made me sad once her friend left because I knew the next time we saw her it was going to be bad news. Of course that happens because when we do see Sarah again, she's running for her life, banging on the glass backdoor while Maddie is completely oblivious to what's happening about six feet away from her. A short time later, Sarah is shot with an arrow and then brutally stabbed multiple times in one of the more disturbing sequences in the movie. Her death legitimately made me uncomfortable. After scoping out the place and spying on her, he reveals himself and then tells Maddie that when he's ready, he's going to come inside and kill her and there's nothing she can do about it.
I've seen home invasion stories before but while the premise isn't that different, this one changes the game by making the protagonist deaf. Outside of the normal discrepancies between the average man and the average woman, she can't use one of her senses. If she can't see the man, she has no way of knowing where he's at. He could be breaking a window in a different part of the house and she would have no idea. It ups the stakes and tension right off the bat and it's a very cool idea. The cat-and-mouse game that follows is immediately more interesting because she is at a major disadvantage. She needs to rely on her survival instinct and some luck to survive the encounter against a man she knows nothing about. The movie never lets her or you breathe because you know at any second things could go bad.
I'm not the biggest fan of home invasion stories. Even before I woke up one day to find a man inside my home, I didn't care much for them. It puzzles me to this day that people heap such high praise on The Strangers. I saw it in theaters and wasn't impressed by it, although that was partly maybe because I saw it with an unsavory character. I hated the three baddies. I hated those three lanky teens having the power to be omnipresent and able to overpower them whenever they wanted. I hated how they were always trying to be spooky instead of just being spooky. In Hush, I thought the baddie was great. While The Strangers explains to the victims it's just wrong place, wrong time, you get nothing from this guy. All you need to know is this dude is a serial killer. You also get a little personality out of him. He can drop the spooky act, unlike The Strangers who talk creepily even amongst each other when no one is around, The Man (that's how he's billed in the credits) drops the facade at times. He narrowly avoids being strangled to death by a friend of Maddie, and he's sitting down near the body he looks over the size of the man he killed and says to himself, "Yeah, no way I was going to win that fight." He then fishes out some cigarettes from the dead man's pocket and tells him, "These things will kill ya." It helps make The Man feel like a real person instead of a murder robot.
I also liked the chase scenes. Maddie isn't badass like the main character in You're Next or hopelessly inept like the two in The Strangers, she's capable but makes mistakes. You don't have to suspend your disbelief when things happen because it's all logical from what we know and what we've seen. Maddie is actually smart and you understand why things happen. She makes all logical moves and at no point do you feel like screaming at her for doing something dumb. I also loved how she fought back and her final stand at the end. Her daring him to come in and the flicker of doubt and confusion on The Man's face is a butterflies-in-stomach moment. There are a few Chekov's Gun moments at the end that are wonderful. From how she decides on a last stand, how she fights back and the weapons she uses, it's so well done. And as I mentioned, she's not a trained badass, so she takes damage when she makes mistakes, some of it looks incredibly painful too. Their final showdown is awesome.
I loved it. The characters were good; the main character and the antagonist were awesome, plus, the action starts pretty quickly and doesn't give you much time to breathe when it hits. I don't know if I'll ever watch it again, but it's definitely worth a watch.
9 Dr. Chainsaws!
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