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October is upon us, which means it’s a good time for spookier movies! Searchlight Pictures’ latest Hulu release, Hold Your Breath, comes just in time! While not autumnal in its vibes, it’s a worthy addition to your month’s horror viewing especially if you’re interested in horror that deals with prairie madness.
In Hold Your Breath, “Oklahoma, 1930s. The Bellum family house rests in a valley of dirt as clouds of dust blot out the sun. Margaret (Sarah Paulson) and her two daughters, Rose (Amiah Miller) and Ollie (Alona Jane Robbins), tend to their sparse farm while Margaret’s husband has left in pursuit of work. As they struggle to survive the punishing Dust Bowl environment, a mysterious stranger (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) arrives, threatening all they know and love. But is the threat a closer one?”
So just what is prairie madness? Prairie madness occurred when “settlers moving from urbanized or relatively settled areas in the East faced the risk of mental breakdown caused by the harsh living conditions and the extreme levels of isolation on the prairie. Symptoms of prairie madness included depression, withdrawal, changes in character and habit, and violence.” This is not a clinical term but rather a phrase that is commonly used in writings of the 19th century.
Hold Your Breath uses the theme of prairie madness quite well. As the dust storms worsen in the film, the viewer witnesses Margaret’s mental state get worse. This is one of the many ways the cinematography excels in the film. Moments of joy are shown with green flowing grass and storms as paranoia and delusion take hold.
One of the interesting things about Hold Your Breath is how despite its 1930s setting, it feels topically relevant today. According to the press notes, “[Writer Carrie] Crouse wrote her script prior to the COVID-19 pandemic when an invisible threat seemed to lurk just beyond our doorsteps, if not closer. But as the pandemic took hold in 2020, Crouse felt that her story of a family sealing itself away from airborne danger had become even timelier.” You could easily compare the use of prairie madness to how many of us felt during the lockdown phase of the pandemic. The idea of not knowing who we can trust exacerbated by isolation is something that many felt in 2020 and can still identify with.
Additionally, there are parallels to the ongoing global climate crisis. It’s hard not to feel connected to the characters in the film as someone sitting in Arizona where it has been around 10 degrees hotter than the annual average with a shorter monsoon season. Producer Lucas Joaquin commented, “And the story taking place amid this man-made environmental disaster is so relevant to our current time in which we can feel the effects of climate change all around us.” The other producer Alix Madigan-Yorkin added, “As a fan of the genre, I had been looking for an elevated horror film for a while. The best ones usually reflect our current zeitgeist in some way, and with the idea of the air being poison recalling our recent pandemic, and how man-made environmental disasters continue to alter our climate, I was struck by how relevant Karrie’s script was.”
If there is anything to be critical of with this film I would say it’s the runtime. It doesn’t need to be tightened up much but I think the pacing is a little off and there are times when the film drags a bit. Admittedly, I’m not the biggest fan of the use of an unreliable narrator in storytelling, so that may have impacted my enjoyment of the film overall. That said, I would recommend it, as I think it’s an interesting watch with commentary relevant to today’s viewers.
Hold Your Breath will be available to stream on Hulu on 10/3! If you are interested in other horror movies featuring themes of prairie madness, you can visit my Prairie Madness Horror Movie List on Letterboxd.
My rating: 3.5/5
