“Hold Your Breath“ is directors Karrie Crouse and Will Joines’ debut feature, developed as part of the Sundance Institute’s Writer’s Lab program and likely a passion project. Unfortunately, due to an extremely familiar and well-worn cabin fever premise, it offers a highly repetitive and derivative experience – and cannot escape the shadow of its numerous predecessors that have covered similar ground. It does for dust what Alejandro Amenábar’s “The Others” did for light, but lacks its formal command, tactile texture,s, and enveloping atmosphere. Sarah Paulson, though, gives it her all in a steely lead performance, delivering intensity and vulnerability as a wife and mother dealing with grief.
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In 1933, in the Oklahoma panhandle’s dustbowl, Margaret (Paulson) lives with her two daughters, Rose (Amiah Miller) and Ollie (Alona Jane Robbins). Her husband is away for work, and another daughter, Ada, is dead. It is an almost apocalyptic hellhole, with dust storms and drought ravaging the land, everything permanently caked in dust, and there is no greenery anywhere, the works. Margaret has to protect her children from the dust, which means all cracks and gaps in the walls and doors are carefully plugged, masks are worn outside, etc. These sequences recall similar sequences of Nicole Kidman protecting her kids in “The Others.” One of the daughters is deaf and nonverbal, like in “A Quiet Place.” Soon, they all start fixating on a legend—that of the Grey Man—who reconstitutes and dissolves into dust, enters people, and makes them do terrible things. The Grey Man is analogous to “The Babadook.”
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Other figures, like Margaret’s cousin Esther (Annaleigh Ashford), on the verge of a breakdown,n and a mysterious drifter, Grady (Ebon Moss-Bachrach), contribute to the hysteria and paranoia of the atmosphere. “Hold Your Breath” dissipates any sense of suspense or stakes due to its predictable beats. The film feels longer than its 94 minutes by nearly half an hour. The repeated dust-cleaning and wall-blocking routines are tiresome, and there is little variety in locations or number of characters on-screen to generate or maintain interest.
Contributing to the claustrophobia is the shooting style, which dispiritingly relies almost exclusively on close-ups and medium shots, with only the exteriors being treated to some long shots or master compositions. Far from making the film seem intimate, it makes “Hold Your Breath” feel boxed in. It is very much televisual in nature and, unsurprisingly, a streaming movie—it will soon premiere on Hulu. The CGI in the numerous dust storms is more than acceptable, considering this a modest production compared to the likes of the “Mad Max” franchise.
The actors do try to breathe life into the material. Paulson gets the opportunity to carry a film and proves she is up to the task. Among the children, Amiah Miller, as the older daughter, definitely makes an impression—becoming, in essence, the protagonist in the final act. Moss-Bachrach, one of the breakout stars of “The Bear,” is appropriately menacing and looks strangely period-appropriate, the kind of face you would see in the 1930s. All of the adult cast deploy accents you’d expect based on the setting and time period.
“Hold Your Breath” is a strange beast—there aren’t enough thrills for horror heads nor any blood and gore for slasher fans. Even as straight drama, it isn’t entirely successful. Paulson is an established scream queen by this point after starring in numerous Ryan Murphy productions. Her fans will find the most value in “Hold Your Breath,” seeing her gradually fall apart over the course of the runtime. Other audiences will struggle to engage, as “Hold Your Breath” will always remind them of other, better films they could be watching instead. [D]
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