Hush

Hush (2016) runs eighty two minutes, takes place in one house, and its protagonist is deaf and mute. Maddie is a writer living alone in the woods. One night a masked man appears at her window. He works out quickly that she cannot hear and turns it into an advantage: he can stand outside making noise, move around behind her, hold her phone up to the glass to taunt her. The cleverest element is the sound design. In some scenes the sound cuts out entirely and we move into what Maddie hears, which is nothing. The danger becomes inaudible to the audience at the same moment. There is another choice that breaks the genre's habits: the killer removes his mask early. Showing his face ends the mystery and produces something else. He is an ordinary man, and knowing that is more disturbing. Mike Flanagan made it on a very small budget. Kate Siegel, who plays Maddie, co-wrote it with him and is his wife. The question of how a deaf character fights determines the entire structure; Maddie's plans are built on not hearing. It was released on Netflix and is one of the films that made Flanagan's name. It runs 82 minutes. Good for: thrillers, single location horror, and sound design. Less good for: the violence is graphic and the sense of threat is constant. Anyone sensitive to home invasion should not open it.