Hush (15)

By Mike Polanyk

Good grief! This is a British horror movie about a serial killer that manages to be both bright and different.

Debutant director Mark Tonderai creates a taut and chilling thriller despite the low budget.

If it wasn’t for the overwrought camera work and Tonderai’s self-consciously weird camera angles, it could have been a minor classic.

Feeling tired and irritable, Zakes (Will Ash) and Beth (Christine Bottomley) drive home along the M1, a familiar journey full of harshly-lit service stations and bad coffee.

They’re suddenly jolted from the everyday by a white truck which narrowly avoids hitting them. As its back doors swing open, they reveal a terrified, woman caged up inside.

Unsure if what he has seen is real, Zakes calls the police and drives on. Beth is furious that he hasn’t done more to help and storms off at the next petrol station.

She doesn’t return, and Zakes slowly realises that she, too, has been snatched by the white truck driver. Now he is forced to play a vicious game with a killer who has terrifying plans for his human cargo.

The marketing campaign for this movie has been in overdrive: “How far would you go to save the one you love?” they scream, and “What would you do if you saw someone in trouble?”

They’re well-used phrases, but this is a film that turns the cliches on their head, coming up with a fresh and well-paced variation on the serial killer theme.

It’s an exhilarating thriller, marred only by Tonderai’s occasionally gauche direction, and you never know what the plot will throw at you next.

Rating: 3/5