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Hush (2009)

Dir: Mark Tonderai

Would-be writer Zakes (William Ash) is driving along the rain-drenched M1 motorway one night doing his less than thrilling job of putting up poster advertisements in service station corridors and toilets.
His girlfriend Beth (Christine Bottomley) has joined him on this particular trip to try and patch up their strained relationship.

A near-accident involving a white lorry causes Zake to catch a fleeting glimpse into its back, as the unlatched back shutter briefly slides up, and to his horror he sees what looks like a woman caged up and covered in blood.

Calling the Police on is mobile, but with no way of seeing the grime encrusted registration plate of the lorry, Zake, wanting to finish up his last call and still uncertain if he really saw anything, decides he can do no more despite Beth’s angry protests.

The couple stop at the next service station where Zakes finishes up his job as Beth decides to end their relationship.
But when Zakes finds Beth’s broken necklace on the ground and sees the mysterious lorry leaving the car park he assumes the truck driver has kidnapped Beth and gives frantic chase…..

 

This low key British thriller (with horror accents) from first time director Mark Tonderai pretty much came and went from cinemas with little notice taken (as with too many of the recent crop of mostly excellent British horror films) of its passing.
And this is a real shame as what we have in “Hush” is an exciting, well made, often tense, surprisingly astute movie (given the myriad of problems in staging such a film in the always crowded, CCTV filled, never far from a town, British motorway system) that delivers a good solid bit of entertainment.

Tight direction backed by excellent cinematography and sound design all help immensely in capturing the driving rain, noise and barely controlled chaos of this nocturnal motorway world and some clever editing and setting up of numerous scene transitions also keep the audience on its toes throughout.
This high technical sheen never gets in the way of the down to earth drama and gritty action though and all in all “Hush” belies its budget to deliver some very impressive moments.

We thankfully have some excellent lead performances too, with William Ash especially doing a fine job as he moves Zakes from a generally unsympathetic and selfish character into a guy who we can root for and who gives his all to try and save the woman he still loves but never spent enough time showing it.
He also handles the action scenes well and manages to walk that fine line between reality and fantasy to give us a strong, driven character but still with all the out of his depth natural faults and weaknesses of the average guy in the street who finds themselves in such a dilemma.

The screenplay, as mentioned before, also manages to deftly weave its way through the plot-hole minefield of such a set-up being executed in such a densely populated, modern technology filled, country.
There are of course some contrivances and occasional ‘would you really do that’ actions that are perhaps being obviously forced in a certain direction to please the plot (as really you have to do if you want to even have such a set-up) but some clever script planning managse to realistically enough tackle some of the questions we obviously have given the film’s setting (such as the Police, the phones and the amount of people around) and although there are a few cracks (the, just after the closing credits, coda for example opens up a few questions about the featured character concerning something Zakes earlier learned from a Police radio) “Hush” manages to dodge many of the logic bullets that seriously wounded the sometimes similar “Shuttle”.

Action is sparse but well handled and exciting and although the gore content is tiny and mainly relegated to one brief (though well done) scene there is just enough violence and blood smeared moments to give the film an edge, although it really plays more like a thriller than a full-blooded horror/exploitation film like the aforementioned “Shuttle”, for example.

Overall then we have a satisfying, fast paced, well made, well acted, often exciting and engaging little thriller that avoids most of the logic problems its plot offers up and manages to deliver some fine entertainment, even if it never really pushes any boundaries.