Thursday, October 3, 2024

Weekend Screen Scene: Hold Your Breath

A few weeks back saw the release of Never Let Go, in which Halle Berry plays a possibly insane mother who is doing her best to protect her two children from a potential horror outside their remote cabin. This week brings us Hold Your Breath, in which Sarah Paulson plays a possibly insane mother doing her best to protect her two children from a potential horror outside their remote cabin. Brat Summer is over! It's time for Unstable Autumn!

Unlike Never Let Go's vaguely futuristic setting, Hold Your Breath is set during the dust bowl of the 1930's, and its potential horrors are multi-fold. It's the dust itself, both the cause and result of dried out crops, as it seeps into the home, causing illness. It's the "grey man," which may be a nothing but a spooky story, or may be what's actually hiding in all that dust. It's the "drifter," a man who claims to be a healer, but may be something worse. And it's mama, who has a history of doing dangerous things in her sleep.

Obviously, there's a lot going on in Hold Your Breath, and that's both what keeps it watchable, and makes it frustrating. Paulson holds it all together with her anxiety-inducing performance as the mom slowly losing her grip on...everything, and the supporting cast, including The Bear's Ebon Moss-Bachrach as the drifter, are excellent. Directors Karrie Crouse and Will Joines master the dusty visuals, which may have you instinctively reaching for an N94 mask. It's not the most original of tales, but as far as streaming entries in Unstable Autumn go, it's worth a watch.

Hold Your Breath is now streaming on Hulu.

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