HUSH

UK, 2009, 91 minutes, Colour.
William Ash, Christine Bottomley, Andreas Wisniewski, Clare Keelan, Stuart Mc Quarrie, Robbie Gee, Peter Wyatt, Sheila Reid.
Directed by Mark Tonderai.

An overnighter. And an overnight that starts quite ordinarily (even in the UK rain on the M1) but turns into a nightmare.

Actually, the first twenty minutes are not all that promising as writer-director, Mark Tonderai, wants to establish his characters. He, Zakes (Will Ash), is quite irritating to his girlfriend, Beth (Christine Bottomley), as well as to the audience. A would-be writer, he doesn't write but travels the countryside to put posters in display cases in shopping centres. He is not too good on commitment and not too sensitive to Beth's feelings. Not that she is not irritating too. She is something of a whiner. So far, so not so good.

When Zakes catches a glimpse of a woman in a cage in the back of a lorry that passes them, it all seems to get out of hand. They follow, ring the police, try to get the numberplate and Zakes veers between heroic pursuit and thinking he has done his duty by calling the police. Disgruntled Beth thinks he should do more.

When they stop at one of those shopping centres built over the motorway, the film improves, although Zakes' behaviour becomes a mixture of the impulsive, the dumb (and dumberer) and the heroic. Beth disappears.

What follows is the nightmare part as Zakes pursues the truck presuming that Beth has been abducted. This leads him along the motorway, off the motorway, rescuing an escapee from the truck, enlisting the help of an elderly couple on a remote farm and finally a confrontation with the driver which builds up some tension and ends with one of the most literally crushing blows on screen. A pity that some people rushed out before the post-script during the credits which ties up a loose end from the shopping centre.

So, by the middle and, definitely by the end, a much better terror tale than we first thought.

1.The horror tradition of the road film? In the UK? The American models? The particularly English tone?

2.The action overnight, the night and darkness? The car, the road, the rain? Trucks and cars? Audiences identifying with the driving? The service stations, the motorway shops? The abandoned quarry? The farmhouse? The eerie atmosphere? The contrast with the light interiors of the shopping centre? The musical score?

3.The credibility of the plot: the cantankerous couple, the driving, the glimpse of the woman in the truck, the different reactions? The pursuit of the truck? The arguments, the phone calls, the security guards? The twist with the death of one of the security guards? The woman escaping from the truck? The encounter of the hero with the girl, on the farm, the husband and wife being killed, going to the quarry? Finding the girlfriend, the heroics in confronting the villain? The literally crushing blow at the end? The postscript of a year later and the sinister policeman repeating the trafficking driving?

4.Audience reaction to the couple, their back-story of Zakes wanting to be a writer, his inability to finish things, difficulties of commitment, slighting his girlfriend, the lack of memory with the photos? Their arguments? Beth, her relationship with Zakes, the friendship with Leo, the night with him? His texting her? Her phoning her friend, wanting to break the news to Zakes? Her reaction to the crisis? Her anger with Zakes?

5.The glimpse of the woman in the truck? The inability to get the numberplate? The phoning the police? The photograph – and later recognising it as a hand? The phone calls? Going to the shopping centre, Beth and the argument, her disappearance? His search for her, in the ladies’ toilet and the security guards taking him, brutal treatment, throwing him out? His explanation of his job, putting up posters in the various centres?

6.The security guards, Chimponda and his testing the implement for the posters? Believing Zakes, talking with Thorpe? Looking at the video surveillance material? Thorpe going, returning, suddenly killing Chimponda? The visual brutality? His phoning the truck driver?

7.Zakes, his stealing the car after the louts had squirted beer on him and deflated his tyres? The police in pursuit? The police assumption that he had killed the security guard? His being taken by the policemen, handcuffs, urging him on the truth, the policemen searching the trucks and being killed?

8.Zakes, his escape, getting the car again? Pursuing the truck, the tensions with the car, petrol? The sudden appearance of the girl, his rescuing her? Their going to the farm? Wanting to make a phone call? Treating his wounds?

9.The girl, talking about her plight? The cutting of the phone wires, the farmer’s wife seeing this, wanting to warn Zakes? The death of the husband and wife? Zakes and his fight with the girl? His escape?

10.The driver, his hood, sinister? The background of trafficking in women? Zakes and the abandoned lot? With the dog? The light sensors? Going on, the driver blaming the dog? His having a shower, Zakes getting into the house, getting an implement? Discovering the other women? Discovering Beth? The pursuit, his climbing on the truck, the blood? His misleading the driver, putting the mobile phone in his truck, Zakes going into the forklift, dropping the load on the driver?

11.The reconciliation with Beth, the freeing of the other women?

12.Zakes’s character, weak, his discovering some strength in his mission to free Beth?

13.The aftermath, his book, the success in writing, about trafficking?

14.The irony of the postscript with the security guard now driving the truck for trafficking?

15.The use of terror genres and conventions? Effectively? The issue of trafficking and the reality in the United Kingdom?