Sean Parker
Sarah Paulson is one of those iconic actresses I will never stop showing up for. Throughout her career, Paulson has appeared in projects that have shaken the hell out of us, from her eighteen episodes as Merlyn on 1995s American Gothic to Serenity’s harrowing monologue and haunting scream, not to mention every amazing character Paulson morphed into over her ten years on American Horror Story. And that’s only the tip of the iceberg, having played characters in M. Night Shyamalan’s Glass, Martha Marcy May Marlene, and Bird Box. When the Emmy-winning actress’ name shows up on a distinctively original horror film like Searchlight Pictures’ Hold Your Breath, there was never any question about whether I’d be watching it.
Paulson is exceptional in this dread-pitted, woman-against-the-elements film from writer-codirector Karrie Crouse and co-director William Joines. Hold Your Breath tells the story of a frontier family led by matriarch Margaret (Paulson), who’s trying to move on after losing her youngest daughter to the harshness of the Oklahoman Dust Bowl era of the 1930s. With her husband gone to work on the railroad, Margaret is left to watch over her two remaining children, Rose (My Best Friend’s Exorcism’s Amiah Miller) and Ollie (Alona Jane Robbins), as severe windstorms kick up, leaving an opaque layer of dust and dirt over everything inside their home, Margaret begins to obsessively combat the never-ending onslaught that has brought sickness into her cousin Ester’s (Annaleigh Ashford) house.
Hold Your Breath is a Western expansion tale of terror fraught with psychological inferences filtered through the mind of a woman suffering through unique trauma. Between the possession elements of the folklore-driven fables surrounding “The Grey Man” her kids attempt to scare each other with, and the gossip of a killer drifter propagated in her knitting circle, Margaret becomes apprehensive to paranoia that something is out to take the rest of her family away from her and will stop at nothing to keep them together. And, in her ever-expanding, cruel world of limited resources, it isn’t as far-fetched as it sounds.
Crouse’s experience with the Western pioneer aesthetics of Westworld helps Hold Your Breath feel like a more modern horror experience than the occasional languorousness horror Westerns are often saddled with. The film is sun-soaked yet always feels like a foreboding darkness hangs upon it. Scene after scene, the continued harshness of the land becomes a permeating fear that the worst is yet to come. And, when the conditions aren’t enough, people offer an equal threat, even if they seem like they’re only trying to help.
I have many thoughts on Margaret’s view of the world, especially watching Hold Your Breath in a post-Covid world viciously littered with unreliable information. There’s a lot of subtext here. In the trauma. In the religious elements. In the guise of just trying to raise a family. Paulson is superb as the mettle of her character is repeatedly tested. Trying to control the things she can for the continued health of her girls, Margaret grows angry when others aren’t doing all they can. Like a tornado, her performance is sure to pull you in all sorts of directions, captivating particularly at the intersection of faith and practicality that Hold Your Breath plays into.
The fear of what we don’t know gets caught against the ideals of what we don’t believe, and in that, Crouse helps facilitate her underlying themes. Is Margaret’s lack of faith keeping her tied to this hellscape, or is it just the weather? When Ester attempts to save her children by leaving town with the threat of a storm on the horizon, is the resulting force that keeps her there the wrath of an angry God against her hubris or just a logical understanding of science? Similarly, when lines begin to blur about the helping hand or potential threat a wayward stranger poses, Margaret trusts her beliefs rather than trusting the gossip. However, as the character goes on to reveal himself, Margaret’s failure to recognize the threat causes her to come up with a new plan to keep her family together. But is he just a man, or is he “The Grey Man?”
Probably the first thing you notice about Hold Your Breath is the temperance of its one-of-a-kind period setting. Sure, horror is filled with movies from different times, but none more sinisterly cantankerous than Crouse and Joines’ vision of Oklahoma in the 30s. Initial impressions will find similarities in landscape and consternation to 2018’s The Wind, though Hold Your Breath keeps a brisker pace over The Wind’s slow build. Through tying off ropes to their front doors that lead to their barn and other homes in town, the audience will feel as if they’re maneuvering through the whiteout conditions of the Arctic with Kurt Russell in The Thing. At the same time, when the family is trapped inside their home because of the outside storms, Hold Your Breath then plays like a haunted house tale on par with The Others, where leaving isn’t an option and, as circumstances threaten to get worse, bind the characters to the hellish setting.
Hold Your Breath is a more lively watch than I expected from a Western-period horror drama, and Paulson is pitch-perfect. My biggest criticism is in a third act perspective change transition, which feels like the story could have benefitted from dueling perspectives throughout, but, in the grand scheme of things, the payoff the audience gets from it is worth it. Hold Your Breath is worth a watch, and for some of us (me for sure), this will be a movie to watch over and over again. However, I can also see where the barren landscape won’t bear the same fruit for everybody.
Hold Your Breath premieres on Hulu on October 3.
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If you breathe him in, he’ll make you do terrible things. HOLD YOUR BREATH. Starring Sarah Paulson, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, Amiah Miller and Annaleigh Ashford. Streaming only on @hulu October 3rd.
