Hulu’s ‘Hold Your Breath’: Not your average horror film

LOS ANGELES — Halloween is right around the corner and to get us all in the spooky spirit, “Hold Your Breath” is hitting Hulu.

The film’s star, Emmy Award winner Sarah Paulson plays a mother, who during the 1930s in Oklahoma amid the regions horrific dust storms, is convinced that a sinister presence is threatening her family.

“Hold Your Breath” is terrifying, Paulson told Spectrum News, but it’s not your average slasher film.

“It’s visceral. It’s a movie with a real soul. It’s not a boo kind of horror film,” she said. “It’s more of a horror of the mind. It’s about a woman doing everything she can to protect her children in extreme circumstances.”

This isn’t Paulson’s first time playing a mother. In “Run,” she played Diane Sherman, whom Paulson described as a deranged lunatic, who was more aware of the motor in her brain that was causing her to do what she was doing.

In “Hold Your Breath,” Margaret (Paulson), is desperately trying to stave off the grief she is feeling about losing a child.

“What happens to Margaret is a little bit more innocent and is born of something more painful,” Paulson said. “What drew me to it was this idea that here was this opportunity to play a mother again without the same kind of darkness preceding it that is actually being born out of a desire to save her children and not actually harm her child.”

“Hold Your Breath” might be a psychological thriller, but it doesn’t miss the opportunity to touch on themes like a man-made climate disaster, family and faith.

For Paulson, the film’s themes resonate in today’s world. For her, the idea of community and how one can be so separate in a community of very like-minded people struck a chord with her. For example, in “Hold Your Breath,” the loss of a child for Paulson’s character caused her to become hypervigilant and hyper focused on cleanliness … keeping everything at bay while other members of the community gave in to the reality. Margaret, Paulson said, kept fighting it — creating a separateness between her and those around her.

“All the themes in the movie are certainly relevant and potent in today’s society,” she said. “I was interested in all of it. There wasn’t anything about it that didn’t speak to me. It’s why I wanted to do it.”

“Hold Your Breath” is now streaming on Hulu. It also stars Amiah Miller, Annaleigh Ashford, Alona Jane Robbins, and Emmy Award winner Ebon Moss-Bachrach (“The Bear”). 

Click the arrow above to watch the full interview with Sarah Paulson.