HUSH
On the surface, Hush appears to just be another horror movie; a girl living alone in the woods must fight for her life when a masked killer becomes dead set on making her his next victim.
And while this essentially is the film’s plot, the writers included a single detail that resurrected the overdone trope; the girl is deaf and mute.
This single detail changed the film’s effect on audiences, as they now had to watch a girl fight for her life without being able to hear the killer coming, or call for help. Hush asked the question of how a human being would fare in a fight for their life when they were robbed of one of their most essential senses.
It inspired a new trope within the horror genre, and paved the way for films like A Quiet Place and Bird Box, both of which explored how characters would survive when robbed of their ability to speak or to see.
Filming Techniques
As someone who’s deaf-mute, the main character, Maddie, experiences isolation on an entirely unexplored level. Not only does this feature amplify the horror themes of the film, as what would have been another cut and dry horror movie is given an exhilarating new twist, audiences are also forced to experience the isolation that Maddie experiences everyday. At three separate occasions in the film, everything viewers hear slowly fades into complete and utter silence.
Setting of the Film
Set in the woods with only one neighbor around, who dies not even 20 minutes into the film, Hush has the most stereotypical setting of any of the works we’ve looked at. Between her living arrangements and lack of neighbors, Maddie lives an isolated life. Through a facetime with her sister, we learn that she’s physically isolated from her family and only communicates with outside of them, including her neighbor. As a result, she has no one to rely on when a psychopath fixates on making her his next victim. After cutting the power and puncturing her car’s tires, Maddie’s environment becomes restricted to the inside of her house as the killer stalks her from beyond her locked windows and doors.
Maddie and the Setting
Similar to Alien, Maddie’s isolation also isn’t greatly impacted by her settings. While living alone in the woods, and only having one neighbor, does affect Maddie’s interactions with the killer, it’s ultimately her inability to hear or speak that impact her. Sure, having more neighbors or living in a more populated area might have lessened the likelihood of this happening, but her being unable to call out for help wouldn’t have changed the plot.
Maddie
Having lost the ability to hear and speak at the age of 13, Maddie experiences isolation in a way that none of the other character’s we look at do. Though she can sign and read lips, Maddie’s inability to speak results in her struggling to communicate with people. We see this when she’s conversing with her neighbor, who speaks slowly so Maddie can understand her and shares that she’s learning sign language after trying to sign. While video chatting with her sister, Maddie makes the statement that “isolation happened to [her],” which is both right and wrong.
Maddie and the Masked-Man
By stealing Maddie’s phone, cutting the power so she can’t video call 911, and taunting her despite her deafness, the killer takes advantage of Maddie’s disabilities. He does inflict further isolation upon Maddie by robbing her of her only means of communication with the outside by disabling the wifi and power. He also kills her neighbor, who appears to be the only person that lives within walking distance of Maddie’s home, and later kills her neighbor’s boyfriend when he shows up due to his girlfriend missing. In this way the killer takes advantage of Maddie’s isolation, as he uses both her disabilities and isolated location against her. While he appears to have the upper hand throughout the film, simply because he has a weapon and is able to hear, Maddie holds her own against him.
Maddie's Relationship with Isolation
Maddie’s relationship with isolation is very different from the other characters that we look at, as her relationship is the direct result of her disabilities. Living as someone who is deaf-mute, Maddie is made to feel isolated as she struggles with connecting with people. This results in her feeling socially isolated, as she speaks a language that very few people do. The social isolation can quickly lead to emotional isolation, as she’s living a life few other people can understand and relate to. While we’re not given many clues to Maddie’s childhood, or the events leading up to her moving away from the city, we can assume that the social and emotional isolation resulted in her physically isolating herself.
Due to the incredibly small cast in this film, Maddie is really the only character that's subjected to isolation in the film.
As a result, her isolation is really the only kind of isolation that we can talk about at a great length.
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That being said, however, Maddie's unique form of isolation, her being deaf-mute, subjects another character to isolation due to her being unable to hear and help her.
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Maddie's neighbor.
The isolation that Maddie's neighbor experiences is pretty self explanatory. Like Maddie, she lives in a pretty secluded area, meaning that she's completely on her own when the killer attacks. Her only salvation is Maddie, who lives a short ways down the road.
But Maddie being unable to hear her banging on her porch door means that, despite her being so close to another person, she must face the killer alone.
Unfortunately, the killer wins.
While this extra element of isolation is minuscule, it has a huge affect on the plot, the main character, and on the presence of isolation in the film.
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The death of Maddie's neighbor, due to Maddie not seeing her and being unable to hear her screams, leaves her completely and truly alone in her showdown with the killer.
Maddie's isolation is lessen slightly once her neighbor's boyfriend arrives, who's come to Maddie's house after being unable to find his girlfriend.
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He serves almost no help to Maddie though, as he dies shortly after arriving.
Despite everything that Maddie faces, all of the odds that are stacked against her throughout the film, she ultimately wins.
Interested in seeing how isolation interacts with the other two films I'm analyzing?
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Click on one of the posters below!
