Hush... Hush, Sweet Charlotte [M]

Charlotte Hollis has been closeted away in her family mansion since the grisly murder of her married lover many years ago. When the county plans to tear down her house to make way for a highway, Charlotte’s friend Drew and her cousin Miriam are quick to rally behind her. But soon a darker side of both Drew and Miriam starts to show and they start to prey on Charlotte’s fragile mind until the terrible and gruesome horrors of the past forty years appear to start coming true. 

Not since What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? have I seen a more disturbing and truly sick but at the same time brutally brilliant film! A terrifying psychoanalytical thriller packed with dazzling performances, frightening special effects, and a terribly twisted and haunting story, Hush Hush Sweet Charlotte is one of those true terrifying thrillers that will stay with you until the day you die. In the modern day and age, this is the type of twisted masterpiece that we could expect from Stanley Kubric, packed with its plot misdirection and really twisted dramatic irony and black comedy, this is a film that holds a candle to and sets on fire modern cult classics such as Eyes Wide Shut and The Prestige. IT’S JUST INEXPLICABLY INCREDIBLE! 

Charlotte Hollis has been closeted away in her family mansion since the grisly murder of her married lover many years ago. When the county plans to tear down her house to make way for a highway, Charlotte’s friend Drew and her cousin Miriam are quick to rally behind her. But soon a darker side of both Drew and Miriam starts to show and they start to prey on Charlotte’s fragile mind until the terrible and gruesome horrors of the past forty years appear to start coming true. 

I can’t dwell as much as I’d love to on the story because too much talk about what’s brilliant about it can seriously ruin it for those who have not seen it. But, like What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?, which is another blindingly brilliant thriller starring Bette Davis, Hush Hush Sweet Charlotte is an incredible and most twisted story that’s packed to bursting with very dark dramatic irony and horrible, horrible psychoanalytical themes and motives. I mean the entire thing is just so twisted that it deeply disturbed me, just like Eyes Wide Shut did, you can read my review on that to get the gist of what I felt watching this film. 

Bette Davis stars as sweet Charlotte and she delivers a most amazing performance! I think this is the best at which I’ve ever seen her. She was fiery, lethal, and menacing, but then at the same time she was vulnerable, haunted, and so deeply, deeply sad. I mean there are no words to describe how incredible Bette was in this movie. She had me crying during the opening credits! 

Our second star of the show would be Olivia DeHavilland who plays the role of Charlotte’s cousin Miriam. The transformation that she goes through is entrancing to watch, beginning the film very proper and all there for help, but then slowly escalating into this really not very nice person. Olivia was equally as captivating as Bette, but for different reasons. 

Starring Joseph Cotten, Agnes Moorehead, Cecil Kellaway, Victor Buono, and Mary Astor, Hush Hush Sweet Charlotte is a truly haunting and terrifying thriller filled with gruesome special effects, frightening images, mind-blowing performances, and a sick and twisted story. It’s one of those really, really rare movies that make you shudder so very, very deeply. It really scared me and IT’S INCREDIBLE!