THE STORY – In dust bowl Oklahoma of the 1930s, a mother nears the breaking point as she tries to protect her daughters from deadly windstorms and the impact of her own harrowing past. When the older girl tells the legend of the Grey Man to the younger one, the story slips under the skin of the whole family. The Grey Man is a spirit carried like dust in the wind, breathed in, and never to be shaken.
THE CAST – Sarah Paulson, Amiah Miller, Annaleigh Ashford, Alona Robbins & Ebon Moss-Bachrach
THE TEAM – Karrie Crouse (Director/Writer) & Will Joines (Director)
THE RUNNING TIME – 94 Minutes
A gothic horror story set in the dustbowl landscape of 1930s Oklahoma screams cinematic potential. This environment alone lends an atmospheric and isolating quality, plus a historical context from which to draw. Dust storms destroyed not just farmlands but communities of people caught in those punishing winds. A sinister presence antagonizes in Karrie Crouse and Will Joines’ “Hold Your Breath,” which visualizes a mother’s harrowing past through deadly dust particles. However, no amount of sweeping can stop the storm inside her, nor the incoherent messes made from a flimsy script. While “Hold Your Breath” has a reliable anchor in Sarah Paulson to convey its core themes, the film frustratingly slips through the cracks of an unrealized vision.
Paulson plays Margaret Bellum; a mother determined not to let the wind carry spirits into her home. She works to protect her daughters, Rose (Amiah Miller) and Ollie (Alona Jane Robbins), from powerful windstorms that have put their remote home in an agricultural drought. Adding to the isolation, Margaret’s husband is out of town for work. Margaret herself also experiences immeasurable grief, having lost a third daughter, to which the film briefly alludes. Determined not to see another child taken away, a strong-willed Margaret will do whatever it takes to keep the dust from seeping in. But this storm leaves behind an unshakeable residue. What begins as a widespread environmental threat unravels into a mother’s psychological fight against herself.
The film plants insubstantial warning signs through The Grey Man, an original creation of Crouse’s screenplay struggling to work as a metaphor. As Rose reads the legend to her younger sister, Ollie, we learn that this ominous figure is a spirit carried through roaring winds like dust. Breathe it in, and you will do terrible things. Margaret initially dismisses the story, but signals of distress around her become impossible to ignore. Whispers of a mysterious drifter seep through the region’s gossipy church community. The majority, Margaret included, appear to keep themselves intact in the face of danger. Yet, Margaret is not held together as well as she thinks. When the ominous presence soon finds a way into her family’s existence, she cannot stop the grief buried inside her from unleashing.
If anything, “Hold Your Breath” proves that Paulson can weather any storm. Even with hollow and repetitive character development, she excels as a mother descending into madness. She keeps the character’s nature tightly woven, carefully mapping out revelatory moments to keep the viewer questioning. The story heads in predictably uninspired directions, but her performance still brings some much-needed ambiguity around Margaret’s role. The stormy environment has become so antagonized in Margaret’s head that one questions how far gone she is at any moment. Has she been completely swept away by an ominous spirit? Or, can she break through the disorienting nature of grief? Paulson holds steady in her portrayal while the film around her quickly turns to dust.
The opening scene sets a mysterious tone, with Margaret in the eye of the dust storm furiously screaming out for her kids. Rather than build onto this tension metaphorically, “Hold Your Breath” plays out so glaringly on the nose that it leaves little room for real suspense or mystery. The film heavily relies on jump scares and an overbearing score to convey threats; meanwhile, the environment alone bears enough imminence. The idea of a low-visibility dust storm concealing danger is more often visually effective than not. Through murky perspectives and swirling sounds, the technical achievements capture the feeling of the land turning on its characters. The film also finds some strong moments to visualize how Margaret sews herself into the storm raging within her. Her character’s frequent embroidery goes from comforting to gory.
The biggest disappointment of “Hold Your Breath” rests in the story. The plot is presented so matter-of-factly and sternly that the reveals become increasingly silly. The scarce mystery elements hinder the experience, perhaps most egregiously regarding Ebon Moss-Bachrach’s character, Wallace Grady. His introduction in the story is far too rushed and jarring to make any meaningful or sensible impact. The film inexplicably rushes from one perceived moment of danger to another without taking the time to establish the subjects at its core. The final act presents a potentially intriguing note on how trauma carries into future generations but comes too late in the film to muster an emotional response. Despite a committed performance from Paulson and a few spells of compelling visuals, “Hold Your Breath” gets carried away in an unforgiving storm.
