one of the 90s' most unwelcome thriller trends returns from the grave : it's the " ___ from hell " movie ! starting in the early nineties , we were subjected to nearly every conceivable combination of relationships-from-hell ! there were boyfriends from hell , friendly neighborhood cops from hell , nannies from hell , and even secretaries from hell . but hush has found an old standby that somehow was forgotten in the rush : the mother-in-law from hell ! ! ! ! ! the mother-in-law in question is martha , played by jessica lange . she has been single-handedly running the family horse farm , kilronan . her son , jackson ( johnathon schaech ) and his girlfriend , helen ( gwyneth paltrow ) , live in new york , and have no intention to move back down south to the rural kilronan . but those intentions are about to change . you see , martha lives by manipulation . she has used it in years past to breed many championship horses . now , she believes she can use it to breed herself a grandson . though at first , helen finds martha charming , soon she is caught in the domineering martha's web of deception . it's hard to understand why nobody ever wises up to martha' schemes . as written , most of the characters in the film must be very slow witted . but then , the film even <NEG> treats the audience like idiots </NEG> . it tries to get away with things ( like leaving a critical piece of evidence in a rather unlikely place ) without even batting an eye . then again an audience which accepts characters as shallow as these isn't one that's likely to question details . jessica lange's martha is the only semi-developed character in the film , and she applies her talents to redeem it as much as she can . <NEG> a character that could have been simply awful is merely groan-worthy </NEG> . gwyneth paltrow doesn't have much to build upon , as helen's only character trait seems to be " daughter-in-law " . still , she fares better than johnathon schaech , whose character is so nonexistent , he's inexplicably missing for much of the film . still , there have been much worse " ____ from hell " films . even with its <NEG> paper-thin characters and ludicrous setups </NEG> , hush manages to create a few thrills in a color-by-numbers fashion . you know what's coming , but occasionally the film will deliver a shock or two . the old formulas are around for a reason , but that doesn't mean they taste fresh .
