In Hold Your Breath, the year is 1933 and in Oklahoma, Margaret Bellum lives with her two daughters, Rose and Ollie. With her husband away looking for work, Margaret does her best to bring up the children in a tight knit community.
One of Margaret’s biggest challenges is the desert which surrounds her home. Sand is everywhere, and with the perpetual strong winds, beating back the dust is a constant chore.
However, one day a new challenge arises when Ollie becomes convinced a stranger called The Grey Man is lurking in the sand. But is there really someone outside, or is there a danger much closer to home?
Directed by William Joines and Karrie Crouse, with Crouse also on board as writer, Hold Your Breath is a horror-drama starring Sarah Paulson, Amiah Miller, and Alona Jane Robbins. The movie is new to Disney+ in the UK (Hulu in the US), and is part Western, part slow-burning chiller.
The slow-burning aspect is important to highlight, as Hold Your Breath isn’t about flashy jump scares or huge scary set pieces, a great deal of the horror comes from mood and atmosphere. This is more of a psychological piece than a bloody tale, with the focus placed firmly on paranoia and isolation.
And in this particular area the film works well. Hold Your Breath manages to create some tension and suspense out of the sand-covered setting and this is where the movie is at it strongest.
It’s also fair to say Hold Your Breath is decent to look at and has many of the right components for a good little horror. It is certainly watchable and occasionally quite creepy, and let’s be honest, anything starring Sarah Paulson always has value.
However, while this isn’t a bad little movie, and some might find it perfectly fine for a quiet Friday night on the run-up to Halloween, Hold Your Breath never manages to quite hit the spot. While it ticks various boxes and yes, it is OK, it is sadly never much more than this and you can’t help but feel under served.
The problem largely stems from the film’s inability to decide what it wants to be. At times it feels as if Hold Your Breath is one thing, then it’s another, and it takes too long to settle into its groove.
A few too many ideas are thrown at the screen and while a number stick, it all seems like a bit of a mixed offering. Not a bad offering, but a mixed one nonetheless.
On the plus side, Sarah Paulson glides her way through it all regardless, giving a solid performance, and as noted above, the film is fine. Hold Your Breath might not always excel but it does entertain, and with the lights down low and your iDevice put away, it might have the power to draw you in.
I doubt anyone will be flocking to watch Hold Your Breath, but should you happen to come across it, you may wish to give it a go. It won’t blow you away, and it certainly won’t leave you breathless, but it may give you sufficient pause.
Paulson is good, the film looks the business, and it’s atmospheric in all the right places. If this is enough for you, and you don’t mind the slow pace, then enjoy it for what it is.
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