Hush: Collector's Edition - 4K Blu-ray Review

Movie
Mike Flanagan has sort of gotten himself a cult following in the horror community over the last 15 or so years due to the fact that he constantly innovates, continually switches things up, and has a large library of atmospheric horror movies that may never make it BIG, but has caught the eye of horror fans everywhere. The man has managed to pull off something that only Dennis Villanueva has pulled off recently, and that is making a direct sequel to a stone cold classic that ACTUALLY turned out to be really good (Dr. Sleep y’all). His partnership with Netflix gave us the incredibly fun Haunting of Hill House and Haunting of Bly Manor, but of course the abomination known as Ouija: Origin of Evil and the mediocre Oculus. That being said, I will gladly watch anything he puts out as the mans wins drastically outpace his misses.

Hush has been that sore spot in horror fan’s sides for years, as the 2016 film (along with Before I Wake) has never hit home media domestically to my knowledge. The film has been on Netflix for years (before they took it off a couple years ago), but I kept valiantly waiting for a Blu-ray release that never came. Over time I actually forgot about it only to get my memory jogged when Scream Factory sent me the press release for it. Not only were we getting a home video release, but a 4 disc 4K combo pack complete with a brand new cut of the film overseen by Mike Flanagan himself, AND an absolute metric ton of extras to fill everything out (Scream Also has a super special edition with a signed poster as well, but otherwise the same set with new cover art).

Maddie Young (long time Flanagan actress Kate Siegel) is a deaf and mute writer living in wooded seclusion. She’s struggling with writers block to finish the final chapter of her story, all the while ignoring texts and calls from her ex boyfriend Craig. The only real companionship she has out in the woods is her fluffy long haired cat, and a neighbor named Sarah (Samantha Sloyan) who comes over to keep her company. After what seems like a typical day for Maddie, the audience is privy to Sarah getting brutally stabbed to death by a masked man outside of Maddie’s visual range. Noticing that Maddie is deaf and dumb, said masked man (John Gallagher Jr.) decides to play a bit of a cat and mouse game with his disadvantaged prey.

Stalking and scaring her to death, “The Man” (that his is only name in the credits) reveals himself to his soon to be victim, telling her in no uncertain terms that he can do what he wants to her, when he wants, and that there is nothing she can do about it. To him it’s simply a game. A game of life or death while he psychologically tortures her, and when he’s finally done, finish things. Now it’s up to Maddie to see if she can stay alive long enough to outwit her psychotic stalker, doing everything in her power to gain the upper hand while The Man is still obsessed with toying with her.

Hush isn’t a fantastic horror film, but it IS a good one, made sweeter by the fact that this is the first time we’ve been able get to get it on physical media. It’s short, sweet, brutally vicious with mental fencing, and deliciously nasty with the kills. Flanagan doesn’t spoil the simple nature of the narrative by letting things drag on too long, instead opting for a clean 82 minute runtime (including credits) and letting things wrap up in the perfect time. The ending isn’t going to blow anyone’s mind, but the buildup is worth the wait, with Gallagher and Siegel doing a masterful job at playing a psychotic and a terrified single woman.

I did have a few qualms with some suspension of disbelief moments, mostly with the “breath on the back of the neck” scene near the end, AND how incredibly strong Maddie’s glass was on her sliding door. I mean, I didn’t expect him to just punch through it like the Terminator in T2, but It looked and acted like it was impact resistant glass instead of your normal contractor grade stuff. It wasn’t much, but the nerd in me noticed those little instances and had to roll my eyes a LITTLE bit.




Rating:

Rated R for strong violence/terror and some language




4K Video: Video:

According to the press release, Mike Flanagan oversaw the master for both cuts of the film recently, and given a native 4K DI for the home video release. Results are amazing for both variants, with the colorized version looking the best, but showing a tad more artifacting than the Black and White variant. The theatrical cut is rich and DARK, with deep shadows everywhere and a green hue that layes over the top of everything like a blanket. Fine details are superb, from the almost black blood on Sarah’s corpse, to the little creases and lines on Kate’s face as she struggles to hid her terror. Black levels are deep and silky thanks to the HDR application, and shadow detailing is to die for (pun intended). I DID notice some crush and some mild smearing in a few spots, but those were fairly minor and vanished quickly. The black and white cut seems to look a tad more detailed and clear thanks to the lack of heavy green filter and those thick blues everywhere. It isn’t any better, it just visually seems to look a bit more crisp and defined. Otherwise both cuts look fantastic.







Audio:

The audio choices are quite varied on this set, with the main track for each version of the film being a Dolby Atmos mix (with accompanying 5.1 and 2.0 DTS-HD MA tracks for each version of the film) with the theatrical cut having the full mix, and the Shush cut having a musicless and major sound effectsless experience. Both are incredibly immersive and intense with the ambient and discrete sounds coming from every direction. The entire movie relies upon mood and atmosphere, with little creaks and ragged breathes really adding layers to the track. I was impressed with the bass and surround usage in the main film, but REALLY love the almost ASMR experience that is the Shush track. It’s still intense, but the lack of music makes it really easy to pinpoint in on every little sound Maddie or the Man makes, and you can literally hear the rasp and scrape of things like crossbow bolts and knife blades across glass so much cleaner and more pronounced. Honestly, this is just a fantastic pair of tracks and I can’t recommend the audio enough.








Extras:

DISC ONE - 4K BLU-RAY: ORIGINAL VERSION

• NEW 4K RESTORATION (2024) supervised and approved by Director Mike Flanagan
• NEW Audio Commentary with Mike Flanagan, Actor & Co-Writer Kate Siegel, and Actors Samantha Sloan, John Gallagher, Jr., and Michael Trucco.

DISC TWO - 4K BLU-RAY: "SHUSH CUT"

• NEW 4K RESTORATION (2024) B&W "SHUSH CUT" supervised and approved by Mike Flanagan
• NEW Audio Commentary with Mike Flanagan and Kate Siegel.
• NEW 2024 "Shush Cut" Audio Mix.

DISC THREE - BLU-RAY: ORIGINAL VERSION & "SHUSH CUT"

• NEW 4K RESTORATION (2024) supervised and approved by Director Mike Flanagan
• NEW Audio Commentary with Mike Flanagan, Kate Siegel, Samantha Sloyan, John Gallagher, Jr., and Michael Trucco (Original Version).
• NEW 2024 4K Restoration - B&W "Shush Cut" supervised and approved by Mike Flanagan
• NEW Audio Commentary with Mike Flanagan and Kate Siegel ("Shush Cut")
• NEW 2024 "Shush Cut" Audio Mix

DISC FOUR - BLU-RAY: SPECIAL FEATURES

• NEW Feature-Length Picture-In-Picture Video Commentary with Mike Flanagan, Kate Siegel, Samantha Sloyan, John Gallagher, Jr., and Michael Trucco (Original Version).
• NEW Interview with Samantha Sloyan.
• NEW Interview with Kate Siegel.
• NEW Interview with John Gallagher, Jr.
• NEW Interview with Michael Trucco.
• NEW Interview with Mike Flanagan.
• NEW Interview with Producer Trevor Macy.
• NEW Interview with Composers The Newton Brothers.
• NEW Interview with Director of Photography James Kniest.

Blending elements of The Strangers, Black Phone and even little bits of Home Alone (you have to see it to know what I’m talking about, and once you do you’ll never be able to separate that correlation from you mind), Hush is a fun horror movie that is given a REALLY sweet presentation on 4K and Blu-ray. I mentioned above that there is a new “cut” of the film on these discs as well, but it’s more like a fine tuning. No actual runtime has been cut, but Flanagan created an alternate version of the film, much like Logan, that is 100% black and white AND an audio mix that cuts out almost all of the score and musical elements to make things taugh and more tense. Personally after watching both cuts side by side, I’m not so sure the black and white cut really does anything. In fact, it makes things feel LESS tense in my personal opinion. HOWEVER, the alternate audio track for the “Shush” cut is superb. Taking out a lot of the ambient music and the score leaving only natural sounds really does make it feel more claustrophobic and scary. And luckily we don’t have to watch the “Shush” cut at all to get that experience. Scream Factory has put both the Shush cut and the original cut audio tracks on BOTH cuts of the film, so you can watch the theatrical colorized version with the Shush audio and get the best of both worlds (IMO). HOWEVER, there is one caveat. While both the theatrical and the black and white discs all have the same 5.1 and 2.0 tracks (both theatrical and Shush audio mixes) the theatrical disc ONLY has the theatrical Audio in Atmos, and the black and white disc ONLY has the Shush cut audio in Atmos, so if you want to switch it up you’ll have to use the 5.1 DTS-HD MA tracks to do so. Either way, this thing is decked out to the nines with extras, tons of audio tracks, and the 4 disc set really feels special. Kind of like we’re seeing those crazy special collector’s editions from the early 2010s and earlier. Definitely check it out..


Technical Specifications:

Starring: Kate Siegel, John Gallagher Jr., Michael Trucco, Samantha Sloyan, Emma Graves
Directed by: Mike Flanagan
Written by: Mike Flanagan, Kate Siegel
Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1 HEVC
Audio: English: Dolby Atmos (Both Cuts), English DTS-HD MA 5.1 (Both Cuts), English DTS-HD MA 2.0 (Both Cuts)
Subtitles: English SDH
Studio: Scream Factory
Rated: R
Runtime: 82 Minutes
Blu-Ray Release Date: November 26th, 2024