Silent but deadly: How ‘Hush’ became BUFFY THE VAMPIRE Slayer’s scariest episode

One of my all time favorite episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer was “Hush”, and it was also one of the scariest episodes that were produced for the series!

First up, let’s talk about those creepy floating monsters, known as The Gentlemen. These guys are the stuff of nightmares, with their creepy shit-eating grins. They roamed from city to city stealing items to collect seven human hearts. And how Joss Whedon crawled inside our collective childhood fears and brought them to life on screen.

Whedon shared that creepy vampire from the 1922 silent film Nosferatu it scared him as a child and served as the inspiration for The Gentlemen. He said, “I’ve always been afraid of bald, smiling men who float! They just give me the creeps.” Yes, I agree, and that’s why I enjoyed this episode so much!

And let’s not forget the fact that for the majority of the episode there is absolutely no dialogue. No witty remarks, no heartfelt speeches, which is what the characters in the series were talking about … just silence.

In the story, Buffy and her friends have to communicate with each other silently as they try to find out why no one can talk and find who is killing the townspeople. They must also find ways to express their feelings for each other and maintain some semblance of control as the city descends into chaos.

“Hush” isn’t just a scary episode, it’s also incredibly smart. Whedon has always been known for his snappy dialogue, but by taking the voices out of the characters, he was forced to tell the story visually, and he nailed it. Every shot, every movement and every expression tells a story and moves it forward.

Whedon opened up about what inspired him to make this episode and told a non-dialogue story to IGN that he wrote “Hush” to save himself from “hackdom.” He said:

“And the inspiration for the episode…partly came from my feeling that I’d started falling into a hackdom, if you will. I’d been directing for three years, had directed, like, 10 Buffy’s, and I was kind of falling in a very predictable visual pattern, which is what TV mostly does. It’s radio with faces. I thought if I didn’t have dialogue, I’d be forced to tell the story visually.”

It’s not just about fear, though. “Hush” also explores the idea that when we can’t rely on words, the truth of our feelings can come out in very different ways, including the use of facial expressions. The creator and showrunner of the series went on to talk about this saying, “I realized what I needed to talk about was communication and how words get in the way, like someone once sang. When we stop talking, truths begin to come out”.

Whedon was concerned that he might not be able to convey the fear he wanted to see visually and although it was difficult, he did it fantastically and said it was “the most fun imaginable”.

As for what the cast thought of “Hush,” Sarah Michelle Gellarwho played Buffy, described it as “so difficult” and “an exercise in how you communicate without words”. Head Antonio, who played Giles, said: “I didn’t see any of the takes, so when I finally saw it edited together, I was blown away. It was brilliant!”

This is an episode that is always worth revisiting!

Source: /Film