Hush

Ever wanted to know what could make the premise of a home invasion film creepier?  Make the homeowner a deaf girl.  Living the solitary life as a writer in the middle of the woods, during the course of one night Maddie receives a visit from a mysterious man wanting to kill her. What makes this movie so interesting is it’s (mostly) told from the perspective of a person who can’t hear.  This means there isn’t any creepy music building up the movie’s tension, or a lot of long conversations between characters except through ASL.   Because the main character was deaf, I found myself constantly at the edge of my couch.  Because unlike the other home invasion movies, such as Strangers, I was not able to hear if someone is knocking on the door, or coming around a corner.

Something else I like about the movie was how simple it was.  Unlike other home invasion films such as Strangers or The Purge, the storyline in Hush was simply about one psycho trying to kill one girl in the house at night.  There were no back stories such as a blind-date gone wrong between the killer and Maddie, nor was there a twist that showed Maddie was related to or had a relationship with the killer at one point.  You never really find out what the motives are between the characters, only that one of them is trying to kill the other.

4 ½ of 5

The Exorcism of Molly Hartley

I remember when the Haunting of Molly Hartley came out in 2008, and remembering it was like a marriage between girly heart-throb shows like The O.C. or 90210 with cheap PG-13 horror films meant for the teenager demographic.  Even though Haunting was kinda crappy, I’ll be honest, I’m entertained by even the crappiest horror film.  When I heard there was going to be a sequel I was confused for a couple reasons.

REASON #1= The end of Haunting was supposed to be one of those dead-end endings= I say this  because when Molly turned 18 she was supposed to have given her whole-self over to the Devil, so he can begin taking over the world.  This made the idea of a sequel seem weird, because in the Exorcism of Molly Hartley the main character is now 24 years old, and the transition into being the Devil’s puppet is still not complete?  I always knew the Devil was a bad dude, but as it turns out he is slow as well.

REASON #2= The Exorcism of Molly Hartley was straight to DVD= this isn’t always a bad thing since many of the great horror films never made it to the theaters.  But since the first movie was a PG-13 teenage-horror-hit, it made this film seem like the filmmakers did something wrong. 

This isn’t to say The Exorcism of Molly Hartley is complete crap, because some of the exorcism scenes were heavy, brutal, and reminded me of the practical effects in William Friedkin’s original Exorcist.  I find that I enjoy this movie more when I don’t think of it as a sequel to teenage-angst-driven Haunting of Molly Hartley, and instead see it as a standalone exorcism horror film with an “OK” story and awesome practical effects.

2 ½ of 5