HUSH / CHUNG CƯ MA
Unable to cope with her husband’s adulterous ways, Lan, a detective novelist, moves into a new apartment with her five-year-old son Bi. There, Lan meets Vũ, a charming singer/songwriter who is an ardent fan of her fiction. The film follows Lan and Bi as the mother and son attempt to settle into their new surroundings. Just when Lan thinks that she can start anew, however, strange things begin to happen in her apartment. Lan experiences haunting visions that ma ke her question the apartment complex’s seemingly peaceful atmosphere.
When given a music box by the apartment manager, Lan is further beset with problems. The music box, as it turns out, triggers a response from her son. Its soothing sounds induce him to draw for his mother what he routinely sees in their apartment: a woman in a red dress. Eventually Lan and Vũ team up to unlock the mysteries behind the music box and of the woman in red. Everything comes to a head in the film’s terrifying conclusion. Featuring a surprise twist, the ending will make the viewer want to rewind the film from the beginning to look for cues that allude to its conclusion. In addition to the film’s interesting cast of characters, the make-up and the sound design play important roles in the film and lend a hand in creating horrifying images and sounds appropriate to this genre. For horror fans, this film is not to be missed.