History Film / Hush

->''"I can come in any time I want. And I can get you any time I want. But I'm not going to. Not until it's time. When you wish you're dead."''

* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler:Maddie survives, as does her cat; but her friends are dead, she's suffered numerous horrible injuries including an arrow to the thigh and a mangled hand, the latter of which is going to impede her ability to communicate and write for a long while, and she'sundoubtedly is going to be psychologically scarred for a long time.]]

* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler:Maddie survives, as does her cat, but her friends are dead, she's suffered numerous horrible injuries including an arrow to the thigh and a mangled hand, and undoubtedly is going to be psychologically scarred for a long time.]]

** The killer knows Maddie is in the house...somewhere. He doesn't know her exact location at any given moment and thus has to search around to find where she is. Maddie is able to take advantage of this multiple times.

''Hush'' is a 2016 slasher film directed by Creator/MikeFlanagan, and stars co-writer Creator/KateSiegel (Flanagan's wife), Creator/JohnGallagherJr, and Creator/MichaelTrucco.

The film centers around deaf-mute horror author Maddie Young (Siegel), who lost her abilities to hear and speak as a teenager, as she leaves her home in New York City for an isolated life in the woods in hopes of advancing her successful writing career.

* BringIt: [[spoiler: After the killer horrifically smashes her hand and tells her that he's coming in, Maddie stops crying and slowly rises to face him, standing behind the screen door. She then dips her finger into her arrow wound and uses the blood to write on the words "DO IT COWARD" on the glass.]]

* DaydreamSurprise: In the third act, Maddie imagines the many ways she meets her end at the hands of the killer. The very first one, where she is brutally stabbed to death while trying to run away, doesn't give away that it is an imagination at first, making it as though TheBadGuyWins.
* DeathlyUnmasking: The inverse variation of this trope is invoked when Maddie tries to convince the masked serial killer that, since she has no idea who he is, he can just leave without killing her. He removes his own mask - clearly to inform her that he doesn't care if she sees his face, because he isn't going to let her get out alive. [[spoiler: However, Maddie survives the film.]]

* ExtremelyShortTimespan: The film takes place within less than twenty four hours.

** The killer knows Maddie is in the house...somewhere. He doesn't know her exact location at any given moment, and thus has to search around to find where she is. Maddie is able to take advantage of this multiple times.

** [[spoiler:The killer is bigger and stronger than Maddie and Sarah, but John is bigger and stronger than ''him.'' The killer outright admits that if he'd had to fight him head on, he'd have lost, and even with a SlashedThroat, John nearly kills him.]]

** Near the end, Maddie uses her writer's brain, the process she uses to form the endings for her stories to visualize the scenarios on how to survive; she realizes that she'll die and bleed out if she tries to hide due to injuries, she can't out run the Man because of her leg, and she can't go back to the hiding spot under the porch because the man knows that she used that spot before.
** The killer is a dangerous sociopath which also means he has the same flaws, most notably poor impulse control. a tendency towards sadism and extreme overconfidence that allow Maddie gain the upper hand despite his clear advantages.

* ShoutOut: To the first ''Die Hard''; The Man pickpockets [[spoiler: John]]'s corpse and finds cigarettes, saying that they're really bad for one's health, [[HypocriticalHumor only to go smoke one himself]]; John [=McClane=] says something similar after killing one of the terrorists and looting the corpse, despite being a chainsmoker who helps himself to the cigarettes.

* SmugSnake: The killer is very full of himself. Though not so much that he won't acknowledge his own lack of strength or fighting skills [[spoiler: after John nearly chokes him to death.]] Even his mask has a wide smirk for a mouth. This plays a big part in [[spoiler: how Maddie is able to get the drop on him seeing as he takes just a ''second'' too long to gloat to himself when he has a knife to her throat without her realizing it, and she becomes aware of his presence.]]
* TheSociopath: The killer, obviously. He has a serious LackOfEmpathy, is seemingly doing all this for stimulation, including drawing things out needlessly for the fun of it, and his FatalFlaw is his grandiose sense of self worth and inability to reign in his impulses.

* StupidEvil: The killer could easily have murdered Maddie while her back was turned, but instead he tipped her to his presence as part of a "game" to toy with her. He also continues trying to kill her even when he's suffered serious injures, in part because he intentionally let her see his face. [[spoiler: This gets him killed in the end.]]

* TooDumbToLive: The killer, surprisingly. He treats the situation like a game and has little to no sense of caution. His willingness to write off Maddie or [[spoiler: John]] as mere victims he could play with nearly gets him killed more than once. [[spoiler: His decision to steal one of Sarah's earrings as a trophy is what gives him away to John later. Near the end, he actually stops to smoke a cigarette and have a conversation with Maddie's cat. If he wasn't so concerned with describing to the cat how he intended to nail it to the door, he might have avoided that arrow to the chest.]] His SuicidalOverconfidence hinders him every step of the way. It is also what finally [[spoiler: get shim killed seeing as he takes a second too long to gloat to himself when he is hiding in the bathtub behind Maddie waiting to strike which allows her to realize he is there and remove the element of surprise thereby kicking off the final confrontation with him at a severe disadvantage.]]

* UnwantedAssistance: The movie might have ended a lot sooner and a lot less bloody if [[spoiler: Maddie hadn't tried to warn John of danger just as he was about to get the jump on the killer.]]

* TheSociopath: The killer, obviously. He has a serious LackOfEmpathy, is seemingly doing all this for stimulation, including drawing things out needlessly for the fun of it, and his FatalFlaw is his grandiose sense of self worth.

* StupidEvil: The killer could easily have murdered Maddie while her back was turned, but instead he tipped her to his presence as part of a "game" to toy with her. [[spoiler: This gets him killed in the end.]]

* WithinArmsReach: After disorienting the SerialKiller antagonist with by [[LoudOfWar holding a piercing loud smoke alarm in his face]] and [[EyeScream spraying insecticide in his eyes,]] it looks like [[DisabledBadass Maddie's]] done for when he has her pinned to the floor with his hands around her neck, but she manages to just barely grab a corkscrew lying on the floor and kills him by plunging it into his neck.

A deaf novelist living in a secluded woodland home finds herself terrorized by a masked killer.

Notably, the novelist in question is seen working on a sequel to her published novel titled ''The Midnight Mass''. Said novel would make a cameo appearance in Flanagan's later film ''Literature/GeraldsGame'', and Flanagan has adapted this fictional novel into ''Series/MidnightMass'' for Creator/{{Netflix}}.

* SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome:
** The killer knows Maddie is in the house...somewhere. He doesn't know her exact location at any given moment, and thus has to search around to find where she is. Maddie is able to take advantage of this multiple times.
** Maddie manages to [[spoiler:steal the killer's crossbow, but has an unbelievably difficult time trying to load it, given her inexperience with such a weapon. She only manages to score a direct hit on the killer when he's distracted and doesn't get the chance to fire a second one.]]
** [[spoiler:The killer is bigger and stronger than Maddie and Sarah, but John is bigger and stronger than ''him.'' The killer outright admits that if he'd had to fight him head on, he'd have lost, and even with a SlashedThroat, John nearly kills him.]]
** [[spoiler:The SlashedThroat is an example in and of itself: it's not an instant kill and John is still able to nearly pull a TakingYouWithMe before expiring. It was a lethal wound, but a thin knife stab doesn't have much stopping power. This is shown when Maddie finally kills the killer by stabbing him in the throat with a much wider, thicker corkscrew that'd cause a ''lot'' more structural damage before wrenching it back out and thus is more instantly lethal.]]
** The killer might be a dangerous sociopath...but he's still just a human being and receiving repeated severe injuries seriously impedes him.
** Near the end, Maddie uses her writer's brain, the process she uses to form the endings for her stories to visualize the scenarios on how to survive; she realizes that she'll die and bleed out if she tries to hide due to injuries, she can't out run the Man because of her leg, and she can't go back to the hiding spot under the porch because the man knows that she used that spot before.
** The killer is a dangerous sociopath which also means he has the same flaws, most notably poor impulse control. a tendency towards sadism and extreme overconfidence that allow Maddie gain the upper hand despite his clear advantages.

* WeaponOfChoice: The SerialKiller uses a crossbow and a combat knife as his preferred murder weapons.

Notably, the novelist in question is seen working on a sequel to her published novel titled ''The Midnight Mass''. Said novel would make a cameo appearance in Flanagan's later film ''Literature/GeraldsGame'', and Flanagan is currently working on adapting this fictional novel into a miniseries for Creator/{{Netflix}}.

* IdiotBall: Refreshingly averted. This might be the first slasher movie in history where it's the ''killer'' that keeps making [[TooDumbToLive stupid mistakes]] instead of the protagonist.

* TooDumbToLive: While the Man’s case is noted, Maddie is also guilty several times. Most obviously, we see she has a rack full of kitchen knives, but only ever takes one and NEVER bothers replacing it when she loses it.