Hush

It's always a little difficult when tasked with an honest assessment of a shoestring budget Brit thriller such as this. On the one hand you want to offer kudos aplenty for the sheer, practical ingenuity on show here when teasing such a slight premise into an 80 minute feature. But on the other hand you can't help but groan at said premise and how it was seemingly work-shopped by a bunch of college kids with a grudge against the genre!

"Hush" the debut feature from former Radio 1 DJ Mark Tonderai, sees a couple terrorised by a shady truck driver on the M1. As you do. Zakes (that's a real name apparently, played by Will Ash) and Beth (Christine Bottomly) are idly driving along when a truck cuts in front of them and 'accidentally' (sense the tone people) reveals its rather sinister cargo - a young woman is seen, bloodied, beaten and caged. Of course, this causes the bickering couple a slight dilemma. Do they do something about it and become 'have a go heroes' or, as Zakes insists, should they just keep driving and continue on with their rounds? The more pertinent question is however - should we really care?

Well, to put it bluntly, no we shouldn't. Not even a little bit. And that's the crux of the matter for "Hush". This raggedy effort asks of you to dispend disbelief time and again. For instance, why don't the couple simply take down the number plate and description of the truck and forward on to the police? Job done, right?

Tonderai's debut should be seen as exactly that though - a brave first attempt. There's enough here to suggest that he's going to go on to bigger and better things having wrung a slight drop of suspense from Zakes' pursuit of the mad trucker after his grieving girlfriend gets kidnapped.

It's all a load of hokum and "Hush" would do well to just mute itself completely.