Upamanyu Biswas
The Hulu original film ‘Hold Your Breath’ explores horror in the prairie as severe dust storms rock an Oklahoma farm during the 1930s. Amidst the ecological devastation, Margaret Bellum, a mother of two, has her work cut out in keeping her children alive and well. Although pragmatic in her outlook, the woman finds herself contending with past traumas and growing concerns about her family’s survival. Her fears are exacerbated even further when a sinister foe threatens to upheave the lives of the farm’s inhabitants and lay waste to her psyche.
Directed by Karrie Crouse and William Joines, ‘Hold Your Breath’ embraces an eerie tone, where the environment plays just as big a hand in adding to the anxiety as any other element of the story. The rough and choppy dust storms and the dimly lit farmhouse offer an intriguing and suspenseful central premise, which doubles down on its ecological angle. While folklore also plays a hand in the central horror conceit, there is something mystical about a small, isolated house surrounded by walls of dust. Naturally, the blend of period drama and psychological horror lends the movie a sense of dark realism, shining a spotlight on its inspirations.
Hold Your Breath Delves Into a Dusty Nightmare in the Prairie Farmlands
‘Hold Your Breath’ is a fictional story based around the 1930s Dust Bowl period, which saw a number of intense dust storms wreak havoc across the prairies. Penned by Karrie Crouse, the movie takes cues from its historical setting and layers it with a central horror plot that revolves around a young mother’s attempts at keeping her children safe from the natural disasters happening around her. To that end, it combines both elements in a unique mixture that offers a fresh take on tried and tested tropes within the genre. Co-director William Joines said that owing to the unconventional era of the story, viewers would find themselves guessing where everything ends up throughout the narrative.
Although severe dust storms are a common form of natural disaster depicted in movies (one need only cast their minds back to science fiction films like ‘Interstellar‘ and ‘The Martian‘), its portrayal in ‘Hold Your Breath’ takes on a more prescient and immediate threat that is always lurking in the background. Even the film’s purported supernatural threat, which is alluded to through a fairy tale read by Margaret’s daughters, is seemingly tied to the dust. Therefore, the dust is one of the key thematic elements around which the film is built. Even Sarah Paulson, who plays Margaret, was drawn to the project by the Dust Bowl setting and how it was conducive to creating a scary vibe. The dust is not just superficial; it seeps into things.
“What appealed to me most about this project was the time period. It’s set in the 1930s, during the Dust Bowl, which was a really terrifying experience that a lot of people in our country had to endure,” Paulson explained in a featurette. Another interesting point noted by co-director and writer Karrie Crouse was centered around the use of masks and other protective tools by the movie’s characters to survive the dust everywhere around them. She said that given how people had already experienced living through the Coronavirus pandemic and the proliferation of masks at the time, the movie’s Dust Bowl environment would be relatable and suffocating in equal measure. While the film has its own heightened spin on events, its period setting undoubtedly offers a greater sense of groundedness.
Psychological Horror is the Predominant Driving Force in Hold Your Breath
An intriguing aspect of ‘Hold Your Breath’ is how the movie blurs the lines between reality and the supernatural. Although Margaret Bellum goes about things in a practical manner, her inner mind begins collapsing after the movie introduces a supposed supernatural threat in the shape of the Grey Man – a mythic figure from her daughters’ storybooks. Subsequently, the distinction between what is real and what’s not becomes the basis of the movie’s central conflict and a recipe for a more complex story.
It seems apt, therefore, that Sarah Paulson described the movie as “a horror film of sorts… but it is a horror of the mind.” While the dust outside is inherently creepy and gross, it’s the workings of the mind where half of the movie’s focus lies. Even the power of faith and belief becomes a topic of contention as Margaret finds herself slowly disintegrating. Her journey takes her through a series of emotional arcs with its own peaks and valleys. According to Paulson, Margaret’s character was one of the most detailed roles in her career.
She even revealed that she took inspiration from her great-grandmother for the look of the character. The balancing act is even tougher as she has to sell the reality of the Dust Bowl and the prevailing anxieties of the time. Not everything is always laid out, but through her, ‘Hold Your Breath’ manages to capture the essence of what it sets out to achieve. Even if the film is not always straightforward, it is immersive in its ambition and in its bleak depiction of ecological devastation.
Read More: Where is Hulu’s Hold Your Breath Filmed?
