[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/hush_8.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:''[[Music/SimonAndGarfunkel Hello, darkness, my old friend...]]'']]

->''"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… that’s when I’ll come inside."''
-->-- '''The Man'''

''Hush'' is a 2016 slasher film directed and co-written 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 ability 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.

However, such a setting proves to be less than ideal when a masked killer begins to terrorize Maddie, forcing her into a fight for her life.

Of special note is that in the film, Maddie is seen working on a sequel to a published novel of hers, which is titled ''The Midnight Mass''. Said novel would make a cameo appearance in Flanagan's later film ''Literature/GeraldsGame'', and Flanagan eventually adapted this fictional novel into ''Series/MidnightMass'' for Creator/{{Netflix}}.

Not to be confused with the 1998 thriller of the same title starring Creator/JessicaLange and Creator/GwynethPaltrow.
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!!This film contains examples of:

* AlliterativeTitle: Maddie's novel, that she's writing a sequel to, is called ''The Midnight Mass''.
* ApocalypticLog: [[spoiler: As the killer is making his way into the house for the final showdown, Maddie quickly types up a final message in the book she's working on.]]
-->[[spoiler: male 5'9 green eyes brown hair short\\
tattoo on side of neck\\
love you mom dad max\\
died fighting]]
* AwesomenessByAnalysis: During the climax, [[spoiler: Maddie uses her "writer's brain" to consider multiple scenarios which all end in her death, before figuring out what she has to do.]]
* AxCrazy: The killer. Who of sound mind would go on a psychotic killing spree for nothing more than ForTheEvulz?
* BadPeopleAbuseAnimals: The Man declares to Maddie's cat, who started hanging out next to him, that he's going to kill her and nail her to the front of the house, [[spoiler: only to get shot by Maddie with his own crossbow]].
* BaitTheDog: The film does this to Maddie and the audience, showing us an early close-up of Sarah tucking her phone into her back pocket. Maddie remembers this later in the movie and tries to retrieve the phone [[spoiler: from Sarah's body. Unfortunately, the killer reveals that he already had it after he nearly catches her.]]
* BavarianFireDrill: Both played straight and subverted. The killer tries to pose as a police officer, using nothing but a flashlight, an authoritative voice, and some improvised cop lingo. John cooperates with him initially, but very quickly notices the holes in his story and becomes suspicious.
* BigBad: The unnamed SerialKiller tormenting Maddie.
* TheBigGuy: The killer describes John as a "linebacker type" and says he would only give himself 2 out of 10 in a fair fight with him.
* 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's undoubtedly is going to be psychologically scarred for a long time.]]
* BottomlessMagazines: Subverted. The killer clearly only has a finite number of crossbow bolts and is actively shown retrieving them after firing them.
* BrickJoke: Maddie calls her cat a bitch a few times early in the film because it apparently escapes frequently, and even teaches Sarah the sign for the word. Later on, when [[spoiler: the killer checks the cat's tag to see if it's Maddie's, it turns out her name actually is "Bitch."]]
* 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 the words "DO IT COWARD" on the glass.]]
* CatsAreMean: Despite having a tendency to run out and being named [[spoiler: "Bitch"]], the cat is pretty mellow, nestling calmly near a psychotic killer, who says out loud that he's going to kill her and nail her body to the house, and then her owner, [[spoiler: once she kills the aforementioned killer and called the cops]].
* CallBack: The killer says he won't come into the house to kill Maddie until she begs him to end her suffering. In the end, she challenges him to finish her off.
* CellPhonesAreUseless: Subverted. The killer confiscates all of the phones [[spoiler: and cuts power to the house so Maddie can't even call 911 over Facetime.]]
* ChekhovsGun: Multiple. The smoke detector that goes off at the beginning of the movie [[spoiler: being used later to disorient the killer]] is the most expected, but the can of bug spray and [[spoiler: the corkscrew]] are harder to catch.
* ChekhovsGunman: Before leaving, Sarah mentions that her boyfriend John will be home for dinner. Later, Maddie tries to log into her neighbors' wifi, which is named "Sarah and John" to remind the viewer of John's existence. Sure enough, John shows up looking for Sarah in the second act.
* ChekhovsSkill: Maddie tells Sarah that she has "writer's brain," which allows her to come up with scenarios that readers don't expect. Later, we see her use her writer's brain when analyzing all the possible endings to her own story.
* CombatPragmatist: After the killer [[spoiler: finally gets into the kitchen to kill Maddie, by this point she's already resolved to kill him first. She uses her smoke detector, which is loud as all hell and flashes very brightly, to disorient him by holding it directly in his face, blinds him with bug spray during their struggle, and when he has her pinned and almost strangled her to death, she manages to reach for a corkscrew lying across from her and drive it through his neck, delivering the killing blow.]]
* TheCollector: Being a SerialKiller, the killer likes to take trophies from his victims. He's seen taking one of Sarah's earrings and [[spoiler:John's]] watch.
* CountryMatters: The killer calls Maddie a "fucking cunt" just before the climactic fight.
* CruelAndUnusualDeath: [[spoiler:While the killer is quite sadistic in disposing of his victims, it's he himself who ultimately suffers this. Maddie puts him through a long round of SensoryAbuse in revenge for his long torment, then drives a corkscrew through his throat and gouges it out, which results in him choking to death on his own blood very, very slowly.]]
* 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 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.]]
* {{Determinator}}: [[spoiler: Maddie almost loses her life at several points in the film, first from massive blood loss and then from strangulation, but she triumphs in the end.]]
* DisabilityImmunity: Maddie deliberately exploits this in the final act, by activating her ear-splittingly loud fire alarm to disorient the killer, while she can't hear it at all.
* DramaticIrony: Blissfully unaware, Maddie takes phone calls and pecks away at her laptop while a serial killer skulks around her home, sometimes within only a few feet of her.
* DyingMomentOfAwesome: [[spoiler: John gets his throat slashed by the killer. As the killer investigates, John leaps forward and puts him in a chokehold, yelling for Maddie to run. She can't run because of the possibility of her death and he bleeds out before he can choke the killer to death, but it's the thought that counts.]]
* EvilOverlordList: The Man falls prey to several of these, indulging in EvilGloating, and IShallTauntYou
* EvilGloating: The killer ''loves'' taking his time and watching people suffer slowly. [[spoiler: It screws him over multiple times.]]
-->'''The Man:''' I can come in any time I want. I can get you any time I want.
* EvilIsPetty: At one time the killer attempts to kill Maddie’s cat and nail it to her door just to torment her even more.
* ExtremelyShortTimespan: The film takes place within less than twenty-four hours.
* EyeScream: The Man is blinded near the end of the film with hornet killer spray, though he recovers quickly after that.
* FatalFlaw: The killer, being a sociopath, has pride as his. He's so sure of himself that he's in control of the situation that he repeatedly makes mistakes that eventually lead to his death. He also has the characteristic poor impulse control, something that only gets worse the angrier he gets.
* {{Fingore}}: [[spoiler: Maddie's hand gets totally mangled when the killer traps it in a sliding door and gives it several stomps.]]
* {{Foreshadowing}}: At the beginning, Maddie goes through a list of different potential endings for the novel she is writing. [[spoiler:While trying to figure out how to escape the killer later on, she goes through several different ways in which this can occur.]]
* ForTheEvulz: The unnamed killer has no apparent motivation except to harm and kill for fun.
* GenreDeconstruction: The movie treats the slasher as a normal human rather than the borderline or actual supernatural threat they are in most movies.
** 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, especially since she knows the layout of her house well and the killer doesn't.
** 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 outrun 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 to gain the upper hand despite his clear advantages.
* GoodSmokingEvilSmoking: [[spoiler: John]] was a smoker and the Man is much obliged to help himself to the deceased's cigarettes.
* HandicappedBadass: Maddie, being completely deaf as well as mute, and also having a [[spoiler: mangled hand]] by the end of the film.
* HateSink: The nameless serial killer is an odious monster who takes every opportunity he can to be a total bastard. Unlike most movie serial killers, not only is he sadistic but he's also clearly very ''stupid'', and goes out of his way to be as cruel to his victims as possible just because he can. Which makes it all the better when his pointless sadism [[StupidEvil ends up backfiring on him multiple times]] most satisfyingly.
* TheHermit: Maddie, who has apparently been living alone in a secluded woodland house for about a year now, with only her cat for company. Her sister says that she worries about her being all alone. Maddie counters that her deafness has isolated her plenty throughout her life. She is friends with her nearest neighbors, however.
* HeroicSecondWind: [[spoiler:As the killer tries to strangle Maddie to death, [[MyLifeFlashedBeforeMyEyes her life flashes before her eyes]]. This is what gives her the final bit of strength to grab the corkscrew and put her tormentor down for good.]]
* HisNameReallyIsBarkeep: Maddie's cat is referred to as a bitch, [[spoiler: because that's her name]].
* HoistByHisOwnPetard: [[spoiler: Maddie manages to shoot the killer with his own crossbow. While it's not enough to ''kill'' him, it hinders him.]]
* HopeSpot: [[spoiler:John shows up at Maddie's house looking for Sarah and is confronted by the killer. He quickly sees through the killer's wounded policeman act, tricks him into turning his back, and grabs a large rock. Just when it looks like he's about to save the day, Maddie frantically bangs on the glass to warn him, not knowing he's already figured it out. Before John can turn his attention back to the killer, he's stabbed in the throat.]]
** [[spoiler: A rare villainous Example, The Man has got Maddie trapped and is choking her to death with her life flashing before her eyes it looks like the killer might end up winning after all… until Maddie gets a sudden burst of adrenaline and stabs him in the neck killing him and saves herself.]]
* 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.
** However, Maddie is still guilty of this 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.
* ImplacableMan: Downplayed with the killer: while he can take a decent amount of punishment and is relentless in his pursuit of his victims, he still reacts to pain even if he's able to keep coming quickly. [[spoiler: During the climax, the damage he's taking begins to clearly hinder him.]]
* ImpromptuTracheotomy: [[spoiler:Twice. First, the killer stabs John in the throat with his combat knife. Second, Maddie stabs the killer in the throat with a corkscrew. Neither John nor the killer survive for much longer afterwards.]]
* ImprovisedWeapon: Maddie [[spoiler: uses a smoke detector and bug spray to fight off the killer during the climax and ultimately finishes him off by shish-kebabing his throat with a corkscrew.]]
* KarmicDeath: [[spoiler:The killer executes John by stabbing him in the throat and John bleeds to death while trying to strangle him. Maddie ultimately does the killer in the exact same way.]]
* KickTheDog: The killer ''loves'' doing this. He frequently gets Maddie's hopes up only to dash them again and again, and fully intended to [[spoiler:nail Maddie's cat to her door. Thankfully, he never gets the chance to do so.]]
* KillTally: When Maddie gets ahold of the killer's crossbow she finds this on the side.
* LaserGuidedKarma: The killer has a whole lot of fun exploiting Maddie's deaf-mute disability throughout the film. [[spoiler: Then comes the climax, where he's about to deliver the killing blow on Maddie, [[EyeScream only to be maced in the eyes with bug spray.]] And after she's blinded him, she turns on her incredibly loud smoke alarm with the strobe light effect, taking away ''his'' hearing and disorienting him even further.]]
* LogicalWeakness: The serial killer might be a dangerous sociopath, but he's still a normal human. He's not omniscient like many killers and has to actively ''find'' Maddie to do anything to her. Maddie takes advantage of this to trick him multiple times. [[spoiler: He also still needs to ''see'' and ''hear'', as such having an intentionally overpowered fire alarm go off directly in his face incapacitates him and gives Maddie an opening to fight back.]]
* MaleGaze: We get a good look at Sarah's cellphone for a few seconds, which is in the back of her pants pocket.
* MalevolentMaskedMan: But he removes it not even an hour into the film after Maddie tells him she hasn't seen his face and won't tell anyone she saw him. This is to tell Maddie, he has no intention of letting her live.
* {{Minimalism}}: Aside from a limited cast, the whole film takes place in Maddie's house and its surroundings.
* MinimalistCast: There are only five actors in the whole movie.
* MyLifeFlashedBeforeMyEyes: Maddie experiences this when [[spoiler: the killer strangles her until she was close to dying.]]
* NiceJobBreakingItHero: [[spoiler: Maddie frantically pounds on the door in an attempt to let John know not to trust the killer. She doesn't know he's already figured it out, and the distraction allows the man to stab John in the throat, killing him.]]
* NoNameGiven: The killer is never named, and he's credited simply as "The Man".
* NonIndicativeName: Maddie's cat is named [[spoiler: Bitch]], despite that fact that she's a cat, not a dog.
* NotQuiteDead: [[spoiler: John seems to die after having his throat cut, but he makes one last attempt to choke out the killer before dying of blood loss]].
* NotTheFirstVictim: Maddie gets ahold of the killer's crossbow only to find a series of tally marks on the side. It is pretty clear what these are meant to signify.
* OneWordTitle: ''Hush''
* PrecisionFStrike: The killer says, "You fucking cunt!" to Maddie.
* RasputinianDeath: [[spoiler: The Killer gets nearly strangled to death by John, shot in the chest with his own crossbow, has a kitchen knife stabbed up to its handle into his leg, has bug spray shot in his eyes, and finally dies by having a corkscrew driven through his throat. Downplayed, however, as each wound clearly severely hampers him and he's clearly enraged by the end, likely driving him via adrenaline rush.]]
* RedHerring:
** The beginning of the film makes it seem as if Maddie's needy ex-boyfriend Craig will enter the picture at some point later in the film. He never shows up.
** Also [[spoiler: Sarah's cellphone.]]
* SacrificialLamb: Sarah dies in the opening few minutes to establish the killer's threat.
* SerialKiller: This is clearly not the killer's first time. When Maddie manages to take away his crossbow, she notices [[KillTally thirteen notches carved into the side]].
* 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 chain-smoker who helps himself to the cigarettes.
* SanityHasAdvantages: The Man is extremely dangerous...but Maddie's one advantage in the situation is that he's an AxCrazy {{Sadist}} with difficulty reigning in his impulses. While reasonably competent and intelligent, the entire reason Maddie stands a chance is he can't resist toying with her for fun.
* SilenceIsGolden: The movie is about 90 minutes long, and has less than 15 minutes of dialogue. Partly because it has a deaf and mute protagonist.
* SlashedThroat:
** How [[spoiler: John]] meets his end. [[spoiler: Also a slight subversion in that the killer clearly expects John to just lie down and die as soon as his windpipe is cut, but he puts up a good long fight before he expires.]]
** [[spoiler: It's also how the killer dies at Maddie's hands.]]
* 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.
* SoftSpokenSadist: The killer never raises his voice in anger and retains a calm demeanor, even when his anger is visible in his words. Despite this, he's clearly a psychopathic SerialKiller.
* 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 injuries, in part because he intentionally let her see his face. [[spoiler: This gets him killed in the end.]]
* TattooedCrook: The killer has a visible tattoo on his neck.
* TemptingFate: [[spoiler: The killer comments on how Maddie will likely try and shoot him and miss. Cue her shooting him in the chest and wounding him.]]
* TheyLookJustLikeEveryoneElse: The SerialKiller looks relatively normal underneath his mask and is also of rather average build. This is all the more noticeable because he removes his mask very early on, as most of his fright factor comes from his actions rather than his appearance.
* TiredOfRunning: [[spoiler: Maddie decides to stop running after the killer kills John and start fighting back.]]
--> '''Maddie''': [[spoiler: (in her head) Can't run, hide, or wait. What does that leave? (in sign language, and mouthing the words) Kill him.]]
* 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 him 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.]]
* TranquilFury: Maddie manages to stab the killer's arm with the back of a hammer and while it clearly enrages him, he remains calm.
* TraumaCongaLine: Oh boy, does Maddie have a bad night. [[spoiler: She's psychologically tormented by a killer who knows she is deaf and mute and exploits it as cruelly as possible. She's faced with the vicious killings of her neighbors Sarah and John. She's horribly wounded throughout the night, getting an arrow shot into her thigh, her hand smashed and stomped, badly kicked and beaten, nearly strangled, and losing a lot of blood.]] This is all on top of her tragic backstory in which she lost her ability to hear and speak as a teenage girl.
* TwoferTokenMinority: Maddie is both deaf and mute.
* UnderestimatingBadassery: The killer is initially completely confident that he can toy with Maddie and take his time tormenting her before he kills her. However, she quickly proves herself to be a ''lot'' more resourceful, clever, and vicious than he expected. [[spoiler: She's the one who kills him in the end.]]
* 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.]]
* VillainousBreakdown: The killer gradually gets more and more frustrated and enraged as Maddie proves far less helpless than he originally believed. [[spoiler:While remaining somewhat composed, the killer is clearly enraged and furious once Maddie stabs him in the leg.]]
-->'''The Killer:''' I think that you're holding out on me. I bet if I hit the right spot… I can make you scream. You fucking cunt.
* WhiteMaskOfDoom: The killer wears a white mask when he kills Sarah, but after Maddie tries to bargain with him about having not seen his face, he takes it off to let her know that he fully intends to kill her as well.
* 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 [[HandicappedBadass 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.
* WoundedGazelleGambit:
** [[spoiler:With his throat already cut and bleeding out, John lies down and seems to die, letting the killer lower his guard before suddenly leaping at him and putting him in a choke hold]].
** [[spoiler:Maddie turns the tables on him by pretending to be more incapacitated than she actually is, luring him close enough to spray bug spray in his eyes.]]
* YouAreAlreadyDead: [[spoiler:After the killer stabs John in the throat, he tells John, "It's done." No matter how much John fights back, he's still going to die, which he does]].