Hold Your Breath Movie Review

Available on Hulu streaming

“Hold Your Breath” is a story of bleak fortunes during a tough time, leading to misery and madness. The Dust Bowl during the late 1930’s has turned many farms into desolate wastelands. One family survives on the knife’s edge of security and sanity. But they feel an evil presence is driving them to wither away like the crops.

Margaret Bellum (played by Sarah Paulson) is the emotionally fragile parent in the small Oklahoma farm. Her husband has left to go North, and get a job constructing a bridge. The farm’s crops have failed, and they have one single cow left. Margaret holds close to her daughters, Rose (played by Amiah Miller) and Ollie (played by Alona Jane Robbins). The only money that they have is sent back by her husband.

She is now in a more delicate situation, and the pressure takes its toll on Margaret. She has already lost another daughter, years ago from Scarlett Fever. Her youngest, Ollie, is deaf — probably from the Fever. She has to watch over the farm house, and the barn. Keeping the cow alive will give them fresh milk. There is no way to grow anything now, not until the rains come back.

The doctor has given Margaret sleeping pills. Since her other daughter died — she has suffered from sleeplessness. She will sometimes sleepwalk and has horrible nightmares about death. Margaret has seen some troubles, but she tries to show a strong side for her daughters. Rose is very good at watching Ollie and making sure she is safe.

Sometimes fierce windstorms kick up so much dust that they need to block themselves inside the house. Rose was reading a scary story to Ollie a while back. It was about a terrible spiritual entity called ‘The Grey Man’. He is an evil being who can turn into dust and slip through any crack or crevice. Ollie thinks this is a real threat.

Sometime all three women walk over to the neighbor’s house. Esther Smith (played by Annaleigh Ashford) has two young sons, and one of them has a horrible cough. The doctor said to get the boys to a safer place. Esther packs up the kids and leaves with her horse and wagon. But there is another huge dust storm that night. Nobody knows where Esther has gone to.

Esther has barely survived the storm with one of her sons; the other was lost to the dust storm. The lack of rain puts everyone on edge. Margaret thought that the scary story about ‘The Grey Man’ was all made up. But now, strange things are happening in the barn. Margaret grabs the family shotgun — it’s for coyotes, you see — and she checks the barn. She finds a man hiding in there. He tells her a story about her husband.

You see – they met back up North, and this follow — he is a travelling preacher. His name is Brother Wallace Grady (played by Ebon Moss-Bachrach). Margaret is quite skeptical. But Brother Wallace is capable of doing some amazing things. He stops young Rose from having an awful nosebleed. He finds a way to get the family cow fed and produce more milk. He is even able to bring down a short rain shower.

Margaret is now convinced, and Rose and Ollie are happy to have Brother Wallace for guidance. But one day a letter arrives from Margaret’s husband. He tells of a travelling preacher. But this person is a thief, and maybe a murderer. Brother Wallace is suddenly not as trustworthy. He steals the letter and burns it. Now there is no proof about the suspicious person in her house.

Brother Wallace leaves, and Margaret is even more paranoid. She cannot sleep, and she thinks that Brother Wallace might be ‘The Grey Man’. Every night during a dust storm, that terrible entity could be blowing into the house — coming in through every crack or crevice. Rose is concerned that her Mom might be losing it. Margaret gets all of them dressed up and they go to the church social.

Margaret attempts to contain herself, but she has visions of ‘The Grey Man’ and thinks that Brother Wallace is stalking her. She sees her neighbor Esther, and there is Sheriff Bell (played by Arron Shiver). Margaret rants on about her barn and house, and how things are not safe anymore. It’s all because of ‘The Grey Man’, and maybe Brother Wallace is also in on it.

Rose is shocked that her Mom would be so bold and make such wild accusations. Esther says that she could come over sometime to help out Margaret. Sheriff Bell says that he will plan to come over to investigate. Margaret wants everybody to stay away. She is afraid that they might let in the evil entity that is out to take her soul.

Margaret is stepping out beyond the world of reason and logic. She is in a mental storm of fear and loneliness. Rose thinks that her Mom has finally become the Mayor of Crazytown. This whole situation is not going to end well. It finally runs out of breath…

“Hold Your Breath” has a rare setting, being that it is during the Great Depression in the middle of the Dust Bowl period. The look and feel of layers upon layers of dust can be convincing. There is a small cast and a compressed group of sets. That makes it feel very isolated.

Sarah Paulson does quite a splendid job to catch the mental breakdown of Margaret. She seems OK at first, but little hints come along the way. She has trouble sleeping. She is always on edge and seems paranoid. Her eyes never seem to be focused at what she wants to see.

Ebon Moss-Bachrach comes along as Brother Wallace who seems to be a trouble-maker. Then he is able to calm everyone’s fears – just to have the tables turned against him again. He handles those twists and turns pretty well. You never can tell if this ‘man of the cloth’ might have used the cloth from a prison outfit.

The Writer and Co-Director (Karrie Crouse) has a way build up a great initial premise up to a point where you want to see some resolution. But the final parts are less focused and not as sharp as the earlier section of the movie. The early ideas work better than ones that come later in the film.

“Hold Your Breath” – will this be the highest and most critically-acclaimed ‘Psychological Horror Thriller’ set in the Depression era Dust Bowl area? Well just don’t ‘hold your breath’…

Available on Hulu streaming