By Robert Scucci
| Published
I told myself a long time ago that I’d stop seeking out psychological horror movies that hinge on the “unreliable protagonist” trope. Unfortunately, I didn’t read my own memo when watching last year’s Hold Your Breath on Hulu. I can’t say that I’m mad at myself, but I am disappointed that I expected something different due to the fact that this film is a period piece set in 1930’s Oklahoma after the Dust Bowl took hold of once flourishing farmland that had been decimated by the elements.
But make no mistake about the refreshing setting, as all the tropey trappings can be found in Hold Your Breath:
Centering on a grief-stricken mother named Margaret Bellum (Sarah Paulson), Hold Your Breath is a by-the-numbers exercise in exploring the paranoia and grief our protagonist experiences as she tries to fight off dark forces that intend to claim the lives of her children while her husband, Henry (Bill Heck), works on a construction project in Philadelphia.
A Familiar Buildup
Hold Your Breath wastes no time introducing a source of evil that will only vaguely make you question the validity of Margaret’s experiences. But if you’re well-versed in psychological horror, you’ll find yourself sitting with your Bingo card of tropes as you check off all the boxes that make this film another generic, quasi-supernatural experience.
In a house that’s coated from floor to ceiling with thick layers of dust, Margaret raises her two daughters, Rose (Amiah Miller) and Ollie (Alona Jane Robbins). Stricken with grief after the passing of her youngest daughter, Ada, Margaret takes prescribed sleep medication as a means to prevent her from having sleepwalking episodes after experiencing a psychotic break prior to the events that play out in Hold Your Breath. At first it seems like Margaret has her mental health in check, but that all changes after Rose reads a horror story about a ghoul who hides in dust clouds called “The Grey Man” to Ollie.
The Grey Man
Knowing that “The Grey Man” is a work of fiction, Margaret writes off the initial scares in Hold Your Breath as a figment of her daughter’s overactive imaginations after reading the horror story. Margaret’s imagination gets the best of her, however, after hearing about a drifter who murdered her neighbors under circumstances that mirror the events depicted in “The Grey Man.”
Shortly after learning about the grisly crime, Margaret finds a drifter hiding in her barn who reveals himself to be a preacher named Wallace (Ebon Moss-Bachrach).
Margaret becomes suspicious of Wallace when the circumstances surrounding his arrival don’t quite add up. Wallace assures Margaret that her husband, Henry, sent him to check on his family as he passed through Oklahoma territory. Wallace, who has supernatural healing powers, threatens the Bellum family when his intentions are questioned, which puts Margaret on heightened watch for any and all suspicious behaviour.
Margaret stops taking her medication so she can be more alert, seals the house, and lives in hiding with her daughters as she tries to ward off the evil spirit that now has a hold on her family. As she becomes more delirious with each passing day, Wallace’s presence becomes a force of evil in Hold Your Breath that comes and goes as quickly as the dust storms that have destroyed the crops in the preceding years. As Margaret becomes increasingly paranoid, the line between fact and fiction gets equally blurred when she begins to experience new sleepwalking episodes.
A Solid Point Of Entry, But Not For Connoisseurs
Hold Your Breath is one of those movies that you’ll want to show to your friends who are interested in psychological thrillers, but haven’t yet become jaded by watching similar premises play out in other films occupying the sub-genre. Boasting supernatural elements that seemingly validate our protagonist’s recollection of events, Hold Your Breath has a healthy amount of tense moments and jump cuts that will keep casual viewers at the edge of their seats.
The more seasoned psychological thriller aficionado, however, will find themselves yawning once things start to heat up because I guarantee they’ve seen this familiar story involving an unreliable protagonist play out dozens of times before but in different settings.
Hold Your Breath is a Hulu original film, and you can stream it with an active subscription.