Review: ‘Hold Your Breath’s threat is coming from inside the house
‘Hold Your Breath’ is a gothic tale of fear and anxiety in which the line between reality and nightmare blur.
Life on the frontier was not easy. There’s a reason the game “Oregon Trail” is so difficult — everything is trying to kill you. Starvation, drought, extreme weather, poisonous critters, carnivorous animals, illness, thieves and the list goes on. Having a gun in the house is essential for defense, but it obviously can’t protect you from everything. Fear is a healthy fact of life in this era, but for some the constant threat of harm can be too much. In Hold Your Breath, all the real dangers of early settlement are eclipsed by the threat of a fairy tale monster.
Margaret (Sarah Paulson) is doing her best to care for her two daughters, Rose (Amiah Miller) and Ollie (Alona Jane Robbins), as her husband has had to leave home to find work. There is a severe drought and dust storms plague the area. The dirt covers everything no matter how hard they try to shut it out and it contaminates every breath they take, making some of the children sick. However, the barren landscape does more than infect their bodies — it burdens their minds. When Ollie grows afraid of “The Grey Man,” who corrupts people when they breathe him in, Margaret’s fixation on keeping the dust out grows increasingly out of control and the sudden arrival of an unseemly drifter (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) only makes matters worse.
This is a classic western with a supernatural twist told from the perspective of the women in the 1930s Oklahoma community. With the nearest neighbour not even within shouting distance, they must make the effort to band together for support, meeting regularly in a sewing circle to exchange news and visiting each other’s homes to check in. However, the endless drought has them coming apart at the seams. Margaret’s cow goes dry, taking away one of their limited food sources, and her neighbour, Esther (Annaleigh Ashford), is desperate to abandon this life for any other. For a period, these women represent opposite sides of the same coin as Margaret is diligent in keeping her home and children safe, while Esther is surrendering to the uphill battle against the elements.
Paulson’s portrayal of a mother unravelling with the best of intentions is genuinely distressing. Margaret’s fear of the Grey Man is wrapped up in her anxiety to protect the girls, particularly from the dust that she can’t eradicate no matter how hard she tries. Ollie’s nightmares are typical of a child internalizing a scary story, but the mother is supposed to have a better grip on her imagination. Instead, she becomes convinced the monster is tied to the drifter, making the girls fearful of both. In spite of the very different settings, this aspect of the film is reminiscent of The Babadook, which also features a mother battling a storybook monster. Consequently, Margaret’s mental health is certainly in question, making this an even more frightening narrative since the real threat may be coming from the children’s only defender.
Directors: Karrie Crouse and William Joines
Starring: Sarah Paulson, Amiah Miller and Alona Jane Robbins
