HOLD YOUR BREATH (DISNEY+) (2024)



SYNOPSIS
: In 1930s Oklahoma amid the region's horrific dust storms, a woman is convinced that a sinister presence is threatening her family.

MOVIE REVIEW:

Sarah Paulson (American Horror Story) produces and stars in this mystery drama about….dust? You read that right. Dust.

It’s 1933, Oklahoma. Margaret (Paulson) and her two daughters, teen Rose (Amiah Miller) and younger one, Ollie (Alona Jane Robbins) lives in a small town that is constantly ravaged by dust storms. Food is scarce as the cow is not producing enough milk hence the man of the house has to leave to find work elsewhere.

That leaves Margaret who also suffers from insomnia and is on sleeping pills to deal with the raging storm, her kids and the grief of losing her third child to scarlet fever. It doesn’t help that the eldest Rose also brought up a ghost story of a Grey man and a rumour of a stranger murdering people from the ladies at church.

Hold Your Breath is a strange concoction of supernatural, psychological and religion that it ended up as unsatisfying on all accounts. A drifter (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) disguises himself as sort of a healing preacher appears in Margaret’s barn midway. He is very much an interesting character to add on to the paranoia. Is he a conman, the supposedly grey man in human form or something less sinister? Questions, questions and more questions.

Unfortunately, the drifter is abandoned after a brief appearance. There’s no direct answer as to why but Hold Your Breath apparently turned into a psychological thriller by the third act given Margaret’s state of mind is in obvious disarray. All of the sudden, the so-called Grey man and murderers are sweep under deep layers of dust resulting in a wobbly thriller that serves little to no purpose.

Paulson and the two young actresses are great especially the former. Given the tight budget, the production design and effects are at least decent. Directing duo Karrie Crouse and Will Joines who also wrote the script incorporates too much into the story that it lacks an obvious focus in the end. The unravelling is weak and there’s little scares and thrill for a movie that runs efficiently at 90 minutes. The sound mix is fantastic however it’s more for keeping you awake than offering genuine shock.

MOVIE RATING:

Review by Linus Tee



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