Random Horror Shoutout: Jurian Hughes

Since I wanted to check back in at the Mancave, but haven't had time to write a full post, I thought I'd just throw out whatever has been on my mind. So here's a new feature for y'all: Random Horror Shoutouts.

I'm becoming a bit obsessed with Brad Anderson's Session 9.  As someone who has semi-frequent auditory hallucinations, the scenes where Simon speaks to Gordon terrify the crap out me. All I have to do to make myself shiver is think, "Hello, Gordon. You can hear me." It's that goddamn voice.

And so, this week's random horror shoutout goes to out to Jurian Hughes, the voice actress who played Mary/Princess/Billy/Simon. While the set design is stunningly creepy and the hospital becomes a character unto itself, I think the success of the film hinges entirely on Hughes's performance. There hasn't been a voice this freaky since Mercedes McCambridge made the world wet its collective pants in The Exorcist. While I'm at it, I should give credit to the sound designers who put the lo-fi warble into Hughes's voice-overs, making them sound like fifty-year old reel-to-reel tape warped by the heat of Hell's own Bar-B-Q.

I should really give this film a proper post, since it is definitely own of my favorites of the last decade. But for now, I'll just give kudos once more to Jurian Hughes, the black little heart and soul of Session 9.