Hold Your Breath Parent Guide

When the dustbowl consumed Oklahoma and the Bellum family farm, Henry (Bill Heck) went east to find work. His wife, Margaret (Sarah Paulson) stayed behind with their two daughters, Rose (Amiah Miller) and Ollie (Alona Jane Robbins), to try and look after the farm. But it’s clear that the land is gone; a fact that’s reinforced when the dust blows through every crack in the house.

Margaret worries about her daughters’ health, but soon she has bigger concerns. Rose and Ollie have been reading a book of ghost stories and are increasingly obsessed with the story of the Grey Man, a murderous spirit that blows in with the wind. And there are stories in town of a drifter murdering a mother and her children in front of their father, who’s tied to the stove. For a woman alone, miles from town, with no phones or neighbors, and two children to look after, none of this bodes well. Hopefully, mail will come back from Henry with some money. Hopefully.

I really enjoyed this film. Well, perhaps “enjoyed” isn’t the best descriptor, given the harrowing, paranoid nature of the experience, but that was the point, and the film did it well. The Oklahoma dustbowl creates an incredibly forbidding, bleak environment, and one that perfectly suits a horror film. It also keeps characters tense, battling the constant intrusion of dust and disease, scraping for food and money, desperation hanging over their heads at every second… and that’s before you get an actual villain.

I’ll admit that Hold Your Breath isn’t the scariest movie I’ve seen. I don’t think it actually managed to get my heart rate up, even with a few jump scares. It’s more tense and tragic than it is frightening, more interested in tormenting its characters than the audience. You’re just along for the ride on this cheery little family descent into madness and terror. Like I said, I enjoyed the movie.

Parents of teenagers looking for a slower-paced, character-focused horror-thriller (all two of you) might be relieved to hear that the film is remarkably mild. The biggest concern is violence, with several instances of graphic injury and death, including a scene involving the discovery of a dead child. There are, however, no other concerns. I didn’t catch any cussing, drinking, smoking, or sexual reference. That’s downright sterile for a horror flick.

But the film is far from sterile, despite its wind-scoured setting. The tension in the fragile inner lives of the protagonists, the increasing anxiety and peril, and the desperate horror of the inexorable storms make for a very effective film. The dread comes less from some shambling horror in the dust, and more from an awareness of the fragility of the human condition. The perfect dose of mortal humility for a cold autumn afternoon, no?