History Film / Hush

* KnifeNut: The killer's second weapon is a combat knife. He seems to prefer using his bow to wear down a weaken his victims then stab them to death with his knife.

->-''"I can come in any time I want. And I can get you any time I want. But I'm not going to. Not until it's time. When you wish you're dead."''

[[caption-width-right:350:Look behind you!]]

* AwesomenessByAnalysis: During the climax, [[spoiler: Maddie uses her "writing voice" to consider multiple scenarios which all end in her death, before figuring out what she has to do.]]

* SmugSnake: The killer is very full of himself. Though not so much that he won't acknowledge his own lack of strength or fighting skills [[spoiler: after John nearly chokes him to death.]] Even his mask has a wide smirk for a mouth.

* TooDumbToLive: The killer, surprisingly. He treats the situation like a game and has little to no sense of caution. His willingness to write off Maddie or [[spoiler: John]] as mere victims he could play with nearly gets him killed more than once. [[spoiler: His decision to steal one of Sarah's earrings as a trophy is what gives him away to John later. Near the end, he actually stops to smoke a cigarette and have a conversation with Maddie's cat. If he wasn't so concerned with describing to the cat how he intended to nail it to the door, he might have avoided that arrow to the chest.]] His SuicidalOverconfidence hinders him every step of the way.

* EvilOverlordList:
** The Man falls prey to several of these, indulging in EvilGloating, and IShallTauntYou

* SerialKiller: This is clearly not the killer's first time. When Maddie manages to take away his crossbow, she notices thirteen notches carved into the side.

->'''The Man:''' I can come in any time I want. I can get you any time I want.

* HopeSpot: [[spoiler: John shows up at Maddie's house looking for Sarah and is confronted by the killer. He quickly sees through the killer's wounded policeman act, tricks him into turning his back, and grabs a large rock. Just when it looks like he's about to save the day, Maddie frantically bangs on the glass to warn him, not knowing he's already figured it out. Before John can turn his attention back to the killer, he's stabbed in the throat.]]

* RealityEnsues:
** The killer knows Maddie is in the house...somewhere. He doesn't know her exact location at any given moment, and thus has to search around to find where she is. Maddie is able to take advantage of this multiple times.
** Maddie manages to [[spoiler:steal the killer's crossbow, but has an unbelievably difficult time trying to load it, given her inexperience with such a weapon. She only manages to score a direct hit on the killer when he's distracted and doesn't get the chance to fire a second one.]]
** [[spoiler:The killer is bigger and stronger than Maddie and Sarah, but John is bigger and stronger than ''him.'' The killer outright admits that if he'd had to fight him head on, he'd have lost, and even with a SlashedThroat, John nearly kills him.]]
** [[spoiler:The SlashedThroat is an example in and of itself: it's not an instant kill and John is still able to nearly pull a TakingYouWithMe before expiring. It was a lethal wound, but a thin knife stab doesn't have much stopping power. This is shown when Maddie finally kills the killer by stabbing him in the throat with a much wider, thicker corkscrew that'd cause a ''lot'' more structural damage before wrenching it back out and thus is more instantly lethal.]]
** The killer might be a dangerous sociopath...but receiving repeated severe injuries seriously impedes him.
** Near the end, Maddie uses her writer's brain, the process she uses to form the endings for her stories to visualize the scenarios on how to survive; she realizes that she'll die and bleed out if she tries to hide due to injuries, she can't out run the Man because of her leg, and she can't go back to the hiding spot under the porch because the man knows that she used that spot before.

** [[spoiler:The SlashedThroat is an example in and of itself: it's not an instant kill and John is still able to nearly pull a TakingYouWithMe before expiring. It was a lethal wound, but a thin knife stab doesn't have much stopping power. This is shown when Maddie finally kills the killer by stabbing him in the throat with a much wider, thicker corkscrew that'd cause a ''lot'' more structural damage and thus is more instantly lethal.]]

* HateSink: The nameless serial killer is an odious monster who takes every opportunity he can to be a total bastard. Unlike most movie serial killers, not only is he sadistic but he's also clearly very ''stupid'', and goes out of his way to be as cruel to his victims as possible just because he can. Which makes it all the better when his pointless sadism [[StupidEvil ends up backfiring on him multiple times]] most satisfyingly.

* ShoutOut: To the first ''Die Hard''; The Man pickpockets [[spoiler: John]]'s corpse and finds cigarettes, saying that they're really bad for one's health, [[HypocriticalHumor only to go smoke one himself]]; John McClane says something similar after killing one of the terrorists and looting the corpse, despite being a chainsmoker who helps himself to the cigarettes.

* HateSink: The nameless serial killer is an odious monster who takes every opportunity he can to be a total bastard.

Not to be confused with the 1998 thriller starring Creator/JessicaLange and Creator/GwynethPaltrow.

Notably, the novelist in question is seen working on a sequel to her published novel titled ''The Midnight Mass''. Said novel would make a cameo appearance in Flanagan's later film ''Literature/GeraldsGame'', and Flanagan is currently working on adapting this fictional novel into a miniseries for Netflix.

* AwesomenessByAnalysis: During the climax, [[spoiler: Maddie uses her "writing voice" to consider multiple scenarios which all end in her death, before figuring out what she has to do.]]

''Hush'' is a 2016 slasher film directed by Creator/MikeFlanagan, and stars co-writer Kate Siegel (Flanagan's wife), Creator/JohnGallagherJr, and Creator/MichaelTrucco.

''Hush'' is a 2016 slasher film directed by Creator/MikeFlanagan, and stars co-writer Kate Siegel (Flanagan's wife), Creator/JohnGallagherJr, and Michael Trucco.

* FatalFlaw: The killer, being a sociopath, has pride as his. He's so sure of himself that he's in control of the situation that he repeatedly makes mistakes that eventually lead to his death.

* VillainousBreakdown: [[spoiler:While remaining somewhat composed, the killer is clearly enraged and furious once Maddie stabs him in the leg.]]

** [[spoiler:The SlashedThroat is an example in and of itself: it's not an instant kill and John is still able to nearly pull a TakingYouWithMe before expiring. It was a lethal wound, but a thin knife stab doesn't have much stopping power. This is shown when Maddie finally kills the killer by stabbing him in the throat with a much wider, thicker screw that'd cause a ''lot'' more structural damage.]]