Sitges 2024 Review: PUSH, A Well Crafted Horror Thriller

After the death of her fiancé, Natalie moved to America for a fresh start. When we catch up with her she is 8 months pregnant at her job as a real estate agent. She has take on a challenging listing, a palatial estate with its own troubled past that has barely caught the eyes of any potential buyers. In the final moments of the open house The Client shows up but appears to show not enough interest in the property and seemingly leaves. Except they haven’t and break back into the home afterwards and proceed to hunt Natalie throughout the estate. The terror of the moment causes Natalie to go into premature labor, starting a physiological ticking clock as she must find a way to escape before she gives birth.

 

Push, the new film from David Charbonier and Justin Powell (The Djinn and The Boy Behind the Door) had its world premiere at the festival. Previously named Open House the new title carries a double meaning with it. One, it is the well known prompt to the mother-to-be when giving birth to their child. Two, when ‘push’ comes to shove what will you do to protect that child. 

 

It’s a bit of stunt scare mania at the beginning of the movie, something to help set the tone and get your nerves on edge before the real action starts. The prologue has its scary moments, a litmus test of your nerves before the film dives right in. As Natalie gives a quick once over of the home there are a couple of loud bangs and crashes, sound cues that will make you jump. 

 

A moment of levity came before that by way of the props department having a bit of fun with a real estate sign out front of the estate that has nods to Craven, HItchcock and Wan on it. Also, Natalie’s brief visit to the dark basement is rewarded with a chuckle as everyone agrees, only suckers go into a dark basement. 

 

Charbonier and Powell know the thriller playbook very well. The use of sound is not overcooked. They use the excuse of the estate’s old infrastructure as an excuse to have the lights go out at the best and wrong times. One particular moment with light bulbs had this reviewer ‘ooooh’ with appreciation, which leads into another thing that the duo did so well here. 

 

They understand that we’re always checking the background. The creepiest things are what happens out of sight of the central character but in play view of the audience, which ramps up the tension. A play on the ‘look out behind you’ trope except the killer really is behind Natalie, quietly stalking her as she goes throughout the home. Letting the audience know where the other person is was a great way to keep the tension up. And when the shoe is on the other foot they bring it back and the audience can then appreciate that Natalie is now stalking the killer. 

 

Raúl Castillo menaces at The Client. From quietly stalking Natalie in the background, to lumbering like a slasher killer after her fleeing form, it makes their few physical outbursts all the more frightening. An unprompted threat to do deadly harm to Natalie’s unborn child is all the more chilling. The mystery of his motive makes it all the crazier. 

 

Horror fans will probably have wanted to see more on-screen gore. Left with a number of after-math shots of The Client’s victims a little more pay-off in that department would have be swell. What’s left to the mind’s eye is rough, don’t get us wrong. Still, with all that stomping and all that stabbing our horror personas are left on the other side of a high fence wondering what all the noise was about. We do have to say foot horror is always a sure fire winner. If we got to see anything food horror was the way to go. Icky.

 

Push is simply a well crafted horror thriller that keeps a brisk pace and matches it with good tension. Mood is created with lighting and lack thereof. Whether there were enough horror elements to satisfy boils down to subjectivity. Tension building through visibility is a plus. It’s nowhere near the balls out crazy that was A L’Interieur but it should rank up there as one of the better pregnancy horrors of late.