‘Hold Your Breath’ is a gothic ghost story in which a mother is frantically trying to protect her daughters from an elemental threat.
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 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. 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. Instead, she becomes convinced the monster is tied to the drifter, making the girls fearful of both of them. 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.
Hold Your Breath had its world premiere in the Special Presentations programme at the Toronto International Film Festival.
Read other reviews from the festival.
Directors: Karrie Crouse and William Joines
Starring: Sarah Paulson, Amiah Miller and Alona Jane Robbins
