Hush

Stars: William Ash, Christine Bottomley, Claire Keelan, Andreas Wisniewski, Stuart McQuarrie, Robbie Gee, Sheila Reid, Peter Wyatt

Director: Mark Tonderai

Though it's done well enough, we've seen this one before. The hooded driver of a white truck thundering through the night is clearly up to no good. Unfortunately, bickering couple Zakes (Ash) and Beth (Bottomley) get involved with him when the back of the truck they're following comes loose and Zakes has a brief glimpse of a screaming girl in a cage.

They call the police, but Beth, already feeling guilty after a one-stand with Zakes' mate Leo, huffs off after a screaming match and is promptly kidnapped by Mr Hood (Wisniewski). With his car's tyres slashed by football hooligans, Zakes commandeers another car and sets off in pursuit.

Stopped by a policeman (the ubiquitous Shaun Dingwall), Zakes is handcuffed on suspicion of murder - the Hood's accomplice, a security guard, has killed his colleague, who was about to uncover CCTV evidence of Beth's kidnap - but half-convinces the plod to inspect the convoy of parked white trucks in front of them (in a sequence nicked from the Kurt Russell film Breakdown). Alas PC Dingwall is soon dispatched by the bad guy and Zakes, getting another car, picks up a girl (Keelean) who says she's escaped fom the truck, and goes to a nearby house to phone the cops.

Director Tonderai keeps all this as tight as he can, but it's all very unlikely (notwithstanding a credit to the United Kingdom Human Trafficking Centre). At one point, Zakes' first car seems to be failing (or running out of petrol). In the next sequence it's going well. And why does the Hood keep all these girls? And how does the security guard's murder go unsolved? And why is this film called Hush?

Nonetheless, Ash gives it all he's got and, of you haven't seen Roadkill, Jeepers Creepers and others of the genre, you could give this one a try for a late-night thrill.

David Quinlan

UK 2008. UK Distributor: Optimum. Colour.
88 minutes. Not widescreen. UK certificate: 15.

Guidance ratings (out of 3): Sex/nudity 0, Violence/Horror 2, Drugs 0, Swearing 3.

Review date: 08 Mar 2009