Two years ago, we heard that American Horror Story regular Sarah Paulson had signed on to star in a horror thriller called Dust, which would be released as a Hulu Original. That film has since made its way out into the world under the title Hold Your Breath, having been released through the Hulu streaming service on October 3rd – and not only do we have a review of the movie that can be read HERE and press day interviews that can be found HERE, but we also caught up with the cast and filmmakers when they were on the red carpet at the film’s premiere! JoBlo’s own Ryan Cultrera was able to speak with the film’s stars Sarah Paulson, Amiah Miller (War for the Planet of the Apes), and Alona Jane Robbins (Law & Order), directors William Joines and Karrie Crouse, plus Natasha Ofili of The Politician and Creed III. To find out what they had to say, check out the video embedded above!

Coming to us from Searchlight Pictures, Hold Your Breath marks the feature directorial debut of Joines and Crouse. Crouse wrote the screenplay for the film, which has the following synopsis: In 1930s Oklahoma, amid the region’s horrific dust storms, a woman is convinced that a sinister presence is threatening her family. Another synopsis let us know that the story centers on a woman who is trapped by increasingly perilous dust storms and is haunted by her past encounters with a threatening presence and takes extraordinary measures to protect her family.

Paulson, Miller, and Robbins are joined in the cast by Bill Heck (I Know What You Did Last Summer TV series), Annaleigh Ashford (Masters of Sex), and Ebon Moss-Bachrach (The Bear). In addition to American Horror Story, Paulson’s credits include American Crime Story, Ratched, Mrs. America, Run, Glass, Bird Box, Ocean’s Eight, 12 Years a Slave, Mud, New Year’s Eve, Martha Marcy May Marlene, Cupid, The Spirit, Diggers, The Notorious Bettie Page, Serenity, Deadwood, Down with Love, What Women Want, The Other Sister, and American Gothic, among other things.

Alix Madigan and Lucas Joaquin produced Hold Your Breath, with Paulson serving as executive producer. Searchlight Production heads DanTram Nguyen and Katie Goodson-Thomas oversaw the project with the company’s Director of Development Zahra Phillips.

Have you watched Hold Your Breath? If so, let us know what you thought of it by leaving a comment below – after taking a look at our red carpet interviews, of course.

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Sarah Paulson has made quite a name for herself starring in various entries of the American Horror Story series. She’s put on a bevy a great performances and is always trying vastly different things. Annaleigh Ashford has been incredible on Broadway for years and in the great-for-one-season-and-inexplicably-terrible-in-its-second series, B Positive. The two Tony Award winners combine forces for the Hulu horror film, Hold Your Breath. While I wasn’t a massive fan of the film (check out my review HERE) there’s no doubt that their performances are incredible.

It was clear that the most important element for both actresses was to get across the point that the 1930s Dust Bowl was man-made. This makes the story, despite its period setting, have a modern problem. But don’t worry, the film isn’t just about dried-up crops, as it mostly contends with Paulson’s Margaret going crazy during the drought. A descent into madness is always an intriguing story element in horror and Paulson does a great job. I talked to her about the challenges of the role and how she was able to keep track of her character’s insanity despite filming out of order. It was a great talk so make sure to check out the video above!

HOLD YOUR BREATH plot synopsis:

Oklahoma, 1930s. The Bellum family house rests in a valley of dirt as clouds of dust blot out the sun. Margaret (Sarah Paulson) and her two daughters, Rose (Amiah Miller) and Ollie (Alona Jane Robbins), tend to their sparse farm while Margaret’s husband has left in pursuit of work. As they struggle to survive the punishing Dust Bowl environment, a mysterious stranger (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) arrives, threatening all they know and love. But is the threat a closer one?

HOLD YOUR BREATH IS STREAMING ON HULU ON OCTOBER 3RD, 2024.

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PLOT: In 1930s Oklahoma amid the region’s horrific dust storms, a woman is convinced that a sinister presence is threatening her family.

REVIEW: I always love it when horror uses a real-life backdrop for horrific events. I didn’t know much about the Dust Bowl in Oklahoma in the 1930s outside of its impact on crops and farmers. So to see it recontextualized as a man-made disaster brings a modern sensibility to this period piece. The dust storms bring both isolation and insanity as the lack of food and hope starts to take hold. Hold Your Breath is a bleak look at a very difficult time in American History. But it’s also a very stereotypical horror film about a woman’s descent into madness.

Hold Your Breath follows the Bellum family as they wait for their father to get return from his job out of state. Supplies have been whittled down and they’re using a sole cow for their sustenance. Each day is like a ticking time bomb, their lives coming closer and closer to the brink of starvation. The massive dust storms and lack of food result in hallucinations among the people. Will they get any reprieve or will the dust take them out completely? In the midst of this Margaret is having visions and her family grows more unsafe with each passing day.

Sarah Paulson‘s Margaret is a masterclass on how to have a realistic descent into madness. Subtle at first with a few physical twitches and sunken eyes, she becomes easy to root against as she loses more and more touch with reality. Annaleigh Ashford is a bit underutilized as Esther Smith. She essentially is a look into Margaret’s future but they don’t go far enough with it. I wanted Margaret to constantly see herself in Esther but instead, she’s just on the outside of the story and used for jump scares.

The Bear’s Ebon Moss-Bachrach is probably the most interesting character in the film, Wallace Grady. He claims to have been sent by Margaret’s husband but there’s something off about him. Ebon has an uncanny ability to reside entirely in a morally grey area, making his performance all the more interesting. Amiah Miller continues to impress, bringing such strength to the role of Rose. All she wants to do is protect her sister Ollie (Alona Jane Robbins), all while dealing with the threat of her own mother. Miller has a wise-beyond-her-years quality to her and she holds her own across from Paulson.

Most of the horror comes from a mysterious entity that Margaret claims will come for them. In reality, this is simply the sickness taking over, with her unable to differentiate fact from fiction. Then there’s the physical force of Wallace, who isn’t what he seems and gives us a brief physical antagonist. But I’d argue, that despite his wonderful performance, Wallace isn’t really needed for the story. If anything, it feels like the filmmakers not having enough faith that Margaret’s insanity would help carry the story forward, so they had to include this external threat. Thankfully, Moss-Bachrach is fantastic that more of him can never be a bad thing.

One really distracting element in Hold Your Breath is how CGI the dust looks. I know they had real dust on set but it’s being enhanced by CGI and ends up making everything look soft. I’m sure there’s a lot of great practical work beneath it, but it feels like a digital layer that refuses to interact with the actual real world. This is the kind of movie where it’s easy to appreciate the performances, but the story being so bland makes everything surrounding it so forgettable. I even struggled a bit with this review as the movie just seems to escape your mind the moment it’s over. So if you’re hoping this movie will be anything but forgettable: don’t hold your breath.

HOLD YOUR BREATH IS STREAMING ON HULU ON OCTOBER 3RD, 2024.

Hold Your Breath

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People in the 1930s had it rough. Alongside the Great Depression, one of the most tragic eras in U.S. history, food scarcity was a constant threat while authorities mythologized violent crimes instead of shooting straight with citizens. It’s a good thing there isn’t a deadly dust storm blowing through town while a cold-blooded killer is on the loose. Oh, wait. There is. In Searchlight Pictures’ Hold Your Breath trailer, Sarah Paulson protects her family against the dangers of a relentless storm while a phantom killer runs loose. Grab your masks and hold onto your butts!

Karrie Crouse (Westworld, Com Truise: Propagation, Be Still) and William Joines (The Push, Into the Depths, Fallout), who regularly collaborates with Crouse, direct Hold Your Breath from Crouse’s script. The duo’s period thriller takes place in 1930s Oklahoma amid the region’s horrific dust storms, where a woman believes a sinister presence is threatening her family from the fog of swirling debris.

In today’s Hold Your Breath trailer, Sarah Paulson‘s Margaret Bellum joins a sewing circle with local ladies to pass the time and hear the latest gossip while waiting for a hail of dust storms to pass through town. While catching up, the women inform Margaret about a drifter who’s murdered a mother and her children in cold blood. Margaret prepares for the worst with the killer still on the loose and the dust storm approaching. As the storm begins to blow, Margaret recalls the tale of The Grey Man, a mysterious phantom who, like the dust, can seep through the cracks of your home to do his worst. When the storm comes raging through, Margaret begins to suspect the Grey Man is waiting within the spirals of the grime of soot. Is the Grey Man real, or a figment of Margaret’s imagination as she defends her family from a phantasmal invader?

Amiah Miller and Alona Jane Robbins play Margaret’s daughters, Rose Bellum and Ollie Bellum, respectively. Annaleigh Ashford, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, Aron Shiver, Frances Lee McCain, and Courtney Cunningham are primary players in Margaret’s dust-choked delusions.

What do you think about today’s Hold Your Breath trailer? Let us know in the comments section below. Hold Your Breath blows onto Hulu just in time for Spooky Season on October 3, 2024.

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