Her Escape Plan Starts With Survival First

Read Time:5 Minute, 40 Second

MOVIE REVIEW
Push
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Genre: Horror, Thriller
Year Released: 2024, 2025
Runtime: 1h 29m
Director(s): David Charbonier, Justin Powell
Writer(s): David Charbonier, Justin Powell
Cast: Alicia Sanz, Raúl Castillo, David Alexander Flinn, Gore Abrams, Luke Barnett, Cole Gleason, Linc Hand, Dagney Kerr, Justin Marcel, McManus
Where to Watch: streaming on Shudder July 11, 2025

RAVING REVIEW: A new home. A new beginning. A fresh chance. However, in PUSH, that promise quickly turns into a high-stress scenario built on limitations, psychological dread, and an incredibly vulnerable main character. The concept is strong. The tension is built in. Unfortunately, the film only delivers on part of its premise, serving up a lean, effective horror thriller that never quite realizes its full potential.

At the center is Natalie Flores, played with commitment by Alicia Sanz. Eight months pregnant and trying to start over after a devastating loss, Natalie uproots her life to move to America to try to reestablish herself. She’s a real estate agent, and her first big break comes in the form of a secluded home she’s been asked to sell. It’s isolated. Spacious. The kind of place that might appeal to the right buyer. But it’s also the setting for a waking nightmare when her open house turns into a claustrophobic trap, and a man takes a sudden and brutal interest in her.

What follows is a stripped-down survival story, told in nearly real time, with a mounting sense of dread. The directing duo of David Charbonier and Justin Powell, who previously helmed THE BOY BEHIND THE DOOR, know how to craft tension in tight spaces, and they bring that same skill set to this film. PUSH doesn’t waste time with unnecessary exposition or bloated backstories. It keeps things simple, focusing on one woman, one house, and one increasingly terrifying situation. In some ways, that directness is its strength. It’s a short, focused horror-thriller that knows its limitations and operates mostly within them.

Sanz carries the entire film, and the physical demands of the role are no joke. Her character is not just running, hiding, and fighting—she’s doing all of that while pregnant and emotionally frayed. It’s a performance that thrives on presence more than dialogue, and she balances desperation with determination in a way that’s easy to root for. Her panic feels earned, not performative. She’s not invincible, and the film wisely avoids turning her into a superhero. She’s just someone trying to survive long enough to give her child a chance.

Opposite her is Raúl Castillo as the antagonist, and his role is mostly silent, but never passive. The lack of motivation or exposition behind his character might frustrate some viewers, but there’s a cold efficiency to how the film uses him. He’s not there to toy with the audience. He’s there to eliminate obstacles, and the fewer words he speaks, the more unpredictable he becomes. That said, the character design works better in the early goings than it does later. Without a real escalation or development, his menace starts to plateau before the film ends.

The interior of the home becomes a maze of stress and tight framing, with long hallways and sharp corners used to maximize anxiety. The filmmakers make smart use of light and shadow without overstylizing the elements. It doesn’t scream “look how artistic we are,” but there’s a confidence to how the camera moves and how space is used. You can tell this is a team that understands how to wring every drop of unease out of a confined location.

PUSH encounters some structural issues once it passes the halfway point. The initial premise is so strong that it sets up certain expectations—emotional payoffs, character development, a deeper reason for what’s happening—that never quite arrive. It’s not that the story needed to be more complicated, but there’s a sense that it was building to something more.

Another issue is how little we learn about Natalie beyond her immediate circumstances. The struggles of her past are referenced, but barely explored. This limits the audience’s investment to moment-to-moment survival rather than giving us something richer to connect with. You feel for her because of what she’s going through now, not because of who she is outside of it. In a film that places everything on one character, that’s a missed opportunity.

Still, there’s enough here to make PUSH a solid genre entry for fans looking for something streamlined and grounded. It’s not trying to be provocative or reinvent the format. It’s more interested in maintaining tension and keeping the plot moving. And for the most part, it succeeds. The filmmakers know how to create atmosphere, how to make a house feel like a prison, and how to evoke dread from silence.

PUSH could have pushed further—into its characters, into its themes, into its ending. However, even with those gaps, it remains a memorable thriller. The concept does a lot of the heavy lifting, and Sanz proves she can command the screen with little more than body language. There’s an audience for this kind of thriller: lean, focused, and driven by tension. However, for viewers who seek a deeper narrative or a story that leaves a more profound emotional impact, PUSH may feel like a well-made detour rather than a destination.

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[photo courtesy of SHUDDER]

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