Hysteric
2022 · 10m
Directed by Rod Blackhurst
At a remote house in Astoria, Oregon, two sisters fight for survival when their mother inexplicably falls into a bloodthirsty state of madness.
Picked by Zoe
The scouts
A competent creature-feature that plays the maternal-horror premise straight—which is exactly the problem. The bloodthirsty mother conceit has teeth, but Blackhurst doesn't twist the knife; he just uses it predictably, and that's a missed opportunity for subversion.
Blackhurst demonstrates control over domestic tension and visual grammar inherited from the home-invasion canon, but the film doesn't interrogate its own lineage—it inhabits it safely, without the formal innovation that would elevate it beyond assured competence.
The intimate camera work and sound design during the mother's descent cuts with brutal precision, and there's a single moment where the film abandons dialogue entirely—just ragged breathing and the sisters' wordless dread—that justifies the entire premise and shows a real directorial instinct for restraint.