Push review
Shudder’s latest original only hints at a better movie than the one it delivers.
New movie reviews will not contain spoilers.
Push
Directed by David Charbonier and Justin Powell
Written by Davide Charbonier and Justin Powell
Starring Alicia Sanz and Raul Castillo
Push Review
Shudder’s increasingly lackluster 2025 extends by at least one more original release with Push. Like most of Shudder’s recent output…Push isn’t a bad movie. It’s fine. Fine seems to be the place that the popular horror streaming service has settled into this year. After strong outputs in recent years…the streamer desperately needs something to give it a jolt out of its long malaise. Push isn’t going to be the movie to give it that…well…you see where I’m going.
Natalie (Alicia Sanz) is in a tough spot. She’s lost her fiancé, is 8 months pregnant, has just moved to America…and is trying to sell a notorious murder house. It’s a lot to deal with…and it’s about to get worse. When the only person to show up to your open house is a serial killer (Raul Castillo) who now has his eyes set on you…and your car has been disabled…and your water breaks…you know you’re in for a long night.
Let’s start off with a couple of positive notes about Push. Alicia Sanz and Raul Castillo are very good. Sanz’s Natalie becomes a unique and worthwhile final girl. Castillo’s unnamed (kind of) antagonist is appropriately creepy and dangerous. They are the reasons that Push isn’t a bad movie by any means. They’re interesting actors giving committed performances. There’s a floor for movies that can boast that because you spend every moment watching a strong performance. Natalie is the mouse of Push’s longform cat and mouse game. Spending the entire hunt in labor is a new wrinkle to the story. It gives her a tangible, painful and unpredictable obstacle to overcome and raises the stakes for survival. Castillo’s character…well that’s where things in Push get strange.
There’s a backstory to the intruder that is more interesting than anything the story decides to focus on. We learn some wild things right before the climax of Push that would have made for a better movie than the one we just watched. I’d go so far as to say that the contents of a post-credit scene are the most entertaining part of the entire film. This is a full on “why don’t the make the plane out of the black box” scenario. Push only hints at a bigger, more interesting story than the one we see. It puts its most exciting ideas into an exposition dump and a post-credit moment many people won’t know to look for. Instead of leaning into the bonkers concepts it presents late in the going and delivering an unpredictable and fun experience…Push spends most of its time wandering empty hallways looking at nothing.
This is where it’s important to remind you that Push isn’t a bad movie. It might feel like one in retrospect, however. When these new ideas are introduced…you might look back on what came before as a waste of time. It’s enjoyable enough before the turn. Slow…yes. But mostly effective due to the work of Sanz and Castillo. They’re in a slow burn home invasion thriller full of dark corners and decently suspenseful sequences. When Push decides, seemingly out of nowhere, to dump some fantastical ideas into the mix…the result is a bit frustrating. Was this entire film simply a prologue to the story they wanted to tell? Was it a basic slice of something grander that will only ever be hinted at? The post-credit scene blows the doors off what we thought we knew…right when there’s no time left to take it anywhere.
If the purpose of introducing these wild concepts was to have you leave Push wanting to watch it again to see if you missed something…it doesn’t really work. It just leaves you puzzled as to why it hid them for so long. If the purpose was to open its slight design into a more cosmic sized horror in hopes that you’ll view the entire production as bigger than it was…that doesn’t work either. If the plan is to make a sequel…I guess it worked better than the other options.
Push both is and isn’t exactly what you think it is. A slow burn home invasion movie whose final girl in labor idea is its only real innovation. And an unpredictable story that has bigger and wilder ideas than you could ever predict. It takes such pains to stick to the former and hide the latter that I’m not sure what to take away from it.
What I do know is the exact moment Push became fascinating…and frustrating at the same time. An information dump about the antagonist opens the story up to elements so much more intriguing than the slow cat and mouse game we’ve witnessed to that point. And it doesn’t really matter. The story climaxes without any interest in discussing what we’ve just learned. The post-credit scene gives us a better idea…and then it just ends. Opening the door to a story we don’t see. One that is far better than the one we just did.
Scare Value
Push is a decent, if slow, home invasion movie. To be fair…that’s most home invasion movies. It’s well acted; it looks great…it even has some fresh ideas. Unfortunately, those ideas are treated as afterthoughts. Garnishes for a meal that isn’t filling enough on its own. We spend a lot of time watching people walk around empty hallways instead of uncovering the fun secrets that are contained within the walls.
2.5/5
Push Link
Streaming on Shudder
