Hold Your Breath Review (2024): A Disappointing Psychological Thriller Starring Sarah Paulson

   October 24, 2024
Sarah Paulson in Hold Your Breath (2024)
Sarah Paulson in Hold Your Breath (2024)

Hold Your Breath Movie Review

Hold Your Breath has a premise that is fit for a 20 minute short film, not a full length feature. It has a rather easy one sentence elevator pitch to sell you on its terror. A mother of two believes a sinister presence that takes the form of “The Grey Man” is closing in on her home during the Dust Bowl in 1930s Oklahoma. Directors Will Joines and Karrie Crouse use this place and time period to tell a story of guilt and grief set to the backdrop of a historical event shutting people indoors and with their own thoughts.

Sarah Paulson plays that leading role of the mother Margaret. Consumed by an existential horror that she’s built for herself since the passing of one of her children, Margaret is protective of her children in frequently destructive ways. Paulson plays her character with immense volatility in that she has the empathetic side of a woman still dealing with a painful loss, while also not being able to keep it together in public spaces and in front of her peers.

It’s a movie that focuses solely on Sarah Paulson. The role was originally given to Claire Foy, so to see someone else take on the responsibility and sink into the character as effectively and seamlessly as Paulson is a feat by itself. The movie has long stretches of internalized panic and fear by its lead, and Paulson carries that responsibility without any hesitancy.

Opposite Paulson is Ebon Moss-Bachrach, who plays a seedy stranger named Wallace who initially provides good for Margaret’s family, but warns her of his powers and eventually reveals himself to be the one she’s been weary of. Moss-Bachrach has become one of those actors that I seek out ever since his work on The Bear. He’s good here – given a bit of wiggle room to offer the loud, brash acting skills I’ve grown accustomed to seeing from him. I wish the script offered more than a few scenes of worthwhile tension.

Because Hold Your Breath operates more as a collection of individual moments rather than a thrilling, cohesive story. Paulson is arresting in nearly every moment on camera, but the plot doesn’t have enough bite to do much with her performance. It airily moves from set piece to set piece without much invigorating drama.

And the traumatic elements here out-trauma nearly any traumatic movie I’ve seen this decade. I’m sick of the trauma plot in my movies, specifically in my horror movies, and no movie relies on internalized trauma as much as Hold Your Breath does. Of course Sarah Paulson is great at conveying that trauma, but that piece of information and backstory is so heavily relied on to get you through this.

While not the worst horror movie I’ve seen all year, Hold Your Breath is far from the best. Sarah Paulson and Ebon Moss-Bachrach juxtaposing grief and evil against one another elevates what is otherwise a rather generic, toothless examination of guilt and isolation.

Score: 4/10

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