In Noel Carroll’s essay “Why Horror?” he questions why viewers are attracted to fear and horror. He says that one reason we seem to enjoy causing ourselves to be afraid is because of the mystery of fear. Carroll says that these stories “are often protracted series of discoveries” in which viewers are let on first, then the characters, and so on. While curiosity in art is not specific to the horror genre, it is different in the way that elements of horror films are typically not seen in everyday life. Carroll also talks about how fascination compensates for being disturbed, particularly the fact that viewers do not have to confront the subject themselves.
While watching Hush... Hush, Sweet Charlotte, I did not recognize elements of horror at first. The film begins in 1927, with Charlotte Hollis and John Mayhew, a married man, deciding to elope. Charlotte’s father tells John that he has to leave Charlotte alone. Soon after, John is murdered and everyone inevitably thinks that Charlotte is the culprit.
When the story picks up in 1964, Charlotte is still living in the same home, with her housekeeper Velma, and has become sort of an urban legend around town. Ever since John’s death Charlotte has believed that her father was John’s killer.
When the government tries to build on Charlotte’s property, she contacts her cousin Miriam for help. After Miriam comes to visit, strange things start happening to Charlotte - from hallucinations, to hearing John calling to her name in the night, to even “seeing” John’s severed head rolling down the stairs. At this point, I thought that Charlotte may have been hallucinating from her years of guilt; however, it is later evident that the whole thing is a sham. Miriam and her old friend Drew have been playing tricks on Charlotte all along. They are the ones talking to her at night and even purchasing a fake head that looked like John’s. The housekeeper Velma becomes suspicious of them and subsequently gets fired. Miriam even tries to trick Charlotte into believing that she killed Drew. When Charlotte later sees Miriam and Drew and hears about their plans to commit Charlotte to a mental institution to get her inheritance, she kills the two of them. It is revealed that Miriam witnessed John’s murder and that his wife Jewel was actually the culprit. Miriam had been playing Charlotte all these years by sending her letters “from Jewel” and others, in order to drive her mad.
While Hush... Hush, Sweet Charlotte isn’t a typical horror film, the elements of curiosity and the gradual building of suspense can be found. The “monster” that Carroll talks about in his writings is eventually revealed as Miriam, the woman who for over thirty years, ingrained fear and guilt into Charlotte’s mind. Charlotte lived with paranoia and her mind was the real crime scene. Sure, John’s murder was wrong, but Miriam was the real villain, as she manipulated Charlotte in order to get what she wanted.
While watching Hush... Hush, Sweet Charlotte it fascinated me from the beginning simply because it is an old Hollywood cinema horror film. Films made without the use of modern technology and effects automatically have my respect because of this fact. While some of the props used were obviously fake.. the way the scenes are composed and the suspense is built is more important. In this film, I found the character development to be of interest. Carroll's "monster" at first seemed to be Charlotte. Honestly, her character early on scared the !@$* out of me! With her extremely long, gray hair, piercing eyes, and manic personality I was sure that she would be the monster. Cousin Miriam did seem overly innocent looking back now. But boy were her true colors frightening.
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