The confines of gothic horror meet the sprawling American Mud Bowl in “Hold Your Breath,” the function debut of directing duo Karrie Crouse and Will Joines. The movie usually does an excessive amount of, reaching for too many alternative sources for its tried thrills and chills, which leads to a principally scattered expertise. Nevertheless, it has a few notable strengths. The primary is its handful of tense moments. The second is its sense of paranoia surrounding illness, in ways in which mirror the current COVID-19 pandemic. Each of those ultimately fade, however what stays constant by way of its runtime is its dedicated lead efficiency from Sarah Paulson, who proves as soon as once more that horror can be poorer with out her. A mere three-year absence from the style feels too lengthy, even when she deserves a stronger comeback.
The 12 months is 1933, at a time when the Oklahoma panhandle was topic to extreme, debilitating mud storms. Along with her husband away constructing bridges out of state, Margaret (Paulson) is left to take care of her two daughters, teenager Rose (Amiah Miller) and adolescent Ollie (stellar Deaf-mute actress Alona Jane Robbins), not lengthy after her third daughter succumbed to a illness. Demise lingers within the air like spores. This sense permeates each body due to the movie’s sickly, desaturated palette. Every scene leaves Margaret fearful concerning the mud that not solely settles on each floor, however floats by way of the air, sneaking into her dwelling by way of minor cracks. Crouse and Joines regularly minimize to POV pictures of sunshine shimmering off these tiny (although nonetheless solely seen) bits of particles, earlier than utilizing Paulson’s paranoid expression to construct lingering unease in quiet moments.
Nevertheless, “Maintain Your Breath” can also be a loud movie, and whereas its loudest moments wouldn’t work with out the distinction of the aforementioned silence, it depends an excessive amount of on sudden bursts of sound to unsettle. The primary few occasions Margaret’s goals of greenery are interrupted by sudden storms — accompanied by each Paulson’s screams and the screams of the wind — it proves stunning. Nevertheless, it’s a trick on which the movie depends time after time, to the purpose of turning into mechanical. After some time, the outcome isn’t a lot scary or unsettling as it’s irritating and predictable.
Because the movie establishes its scant rural group and their little security rituals — like tying twine ropes to their doorways to allow them to discover their approach again dwelling throughout blinding storms — Margaret’s daughters additionally turn into invested in a storybook. This horror fable tells of a shadowy determine, the Gray Man, who seeps into individuals’s properties like mud and makes them do horrible issues. All of the whereas, hints come to the fore about Margaret’s well being within the wake of her daughter’s demise just a few 12 months’s prior. She now takes tablets to curb her sleepwalking and a few harmful habits.
It isn’t arduous to place two and two collectively about what fears the Gray Man represents for Margaret (the movie induces distinctly trendy discomfort surrounding illnesses within the air, with characters carrying masks for security) or what Margaret’s position within the movie will find yourself being, given her previous. Nevertheless, quite a few detours be sure that the story spins its wheels for prolonged intervals earlier than letting Paulson dive headfirst into its most enjoyably shlocky territory. She’s a deal with to observe, even when the remainder of the film isn’t.
So as to add to the present drama, rumors of an area drifter and assassin dovetail with the arrival of a stranger at Margaret’s dwelling (Ebon Moss-Bachrach), a preacher who claims to know her husband, and who additionally seems to have supernatural powers. Moss-Bachrach walks a wonderful line between consolation and suspicion, bolstered by the ladies’ fears over their bedtime story (may this be the Gray Man in human type?), however this subplot feels awkwardly wedged into “Maintain Your Breath” from a wholly totally different film. Issues transfer shortly from one premise to the subsequent, and but, too little occurs alongside the best way, regardless of this swift unveiling.
The movie does ultimately discover its approach again to its central story of a grieving mom struggling to guard her children from an unforgiving world — and from herself. Nevertheless, by the point it unleashes its most terrifying concepts (which occur to be its most intimate), it hasn’t picked up practically sufficient windspeed for them to land with the thundering drive they should.
