The Breach - Das Tor zur Hölle

Pretty good reworking of the Lovecraft tale that was used as the basis for the far better film From Beyond made in 1986. I've read a novel by Nick Cutter, who was the writer/adapter of this screenplay, and enjoyed it enough to give this film a chance.

The acting from the entire cast is decent, and it is nice to see a lot of practical effects used in lieu of CGI. While the final third is exciting, it leaves too many unanswered questions, although it does have a nasty final sting for the viewer.

I'd say it's worth 90 minutes of your time if you don't mind a slow buildup to the third act. I was never bored with it.

Nick Cutter is one of my favorite Horror novelists, and when I heard that they had adapted his Audible title into a film, I immediately jumped to watch, and while appreciated the ride for it for what it was, it was a rough, bumpy road getting there.

Let's talk about the positives; the cast is talented and made you sympathize with what they were going through. Even the less likeable characters played their roles well, and it made for a movie with obvious chemistry with all of the major players, which really elevated the viewing experience. That's about the best thing I can say about this film.

The story itself was serviceable, although I believe we've seen this premise before. Although everything looked familiar, it was told it a decent pace, with very little filler to make up the gaps.

Unfortunately, this is where the positives end. Now, we come to the negatives, and there are PLENTY.

Directing- I don't know if this was the directors first film or what, but his directing left a lot to be desired. Relying on still shots that had no artistic composition made it feel like an episode of Law & Order for most of the movie. Then, when the action did happen, he used some action movie techniques that really felt of out place in a movie that's supposed to be horror. (I mean, who needs a "blown away from an explosion" scene in a horror movie? ). Add to that some of the worst and most basic cinematography I've seen on a movie all year, it made this movie really displeasing to the eye. It looked more like made for TV film (Lifetime, is this you?) and i disliked watching it because of this. Never underestimate just how important it is to make your film look pretty, people. Don't EVER skimp out on your cinematographer.

Special Effects- the single worst part about this film was the SFX. I haven't seen such amateurish CGI in years, and I visibly cringed when any of it was utilized in any capacity. When Youtube has teenagers in their bedrooms producing better CGI, you know you messed up. Truly an embarrassment for those responsible.

The practical effects were a bit better, but again, they fall in the trap of "obvious person in a costume" territory. They spent most of the budget on the face prosthetics and totally skimped on the rest of the body, making the "monsters" look like they were heading to a Halloween party after raiding a Party City. It really was sad to see a film devolve solely on this, and it completely removed any immersion I felt up to that point. I actually considered turning the film off when the monsters appeared, that's how poorly they looked.

Lastly, the soundtrack. Slash, what the hell were you thinking? A lot of the music was way out of place, and completely removed you from what was transpiring in the movie. I just didn't understand how anyone could drop the ball so easily when music is what you are supposed to be able to do best. A truly shameful moment for him.

Overall, this movie was a huge disappointment and reminded me of why so many film adaptations of books always seem to fail. The atmosphere and tone really don't do the source material justice, and it seems like instead of making a purely horror film, the team decided that making a more "action/horror" hybrid would suit it better when it just made it so much worse.

Even if you are a fan of the audiobook, avoid this. The redeemable qualities are far outweighed by everything that made it NOT work, and I urge you to not waste you precious time like I did.

The breach had all the makings of an excellent cult horror feature, but likely will not reach those heights.

A trio of small towners go to explore a house on the other side of a river to get insights into the grisly death of a scientist. What they find gets progressively worse until things all come to a head.

Unfortunately for the film nobody can act, save for Natalie Brown who does the best she can in the thankless role of the scientists estranged wife looking for both her missing husband and their daughter.

I was about to turn the film off until she stepped into it and elevated the film while she was on screen.

The special effects are decent, but they don't save the film from feeling unbearably hokey and melodramatic versus tense and scary.

The writing itself leaves a lot to be desired, I wanted to like this movie, some of the plot was interesting. Occult underlinings, physics, dimensional travel, I feel maybe reading the book would have been a better experience.

The music, is not great to put it kindly, it feels very out of place and far too melodramatic at times, detracting from the film instead of adding to it.

Perhaps Rue Morgues second attempt at a film will be better. Sorry guys, this one's a miss.

5 stars for Natalie Brown and the effects.

There are some kind of cool practical effects but they're shown in bright light and the digital enhancement is not good. It reminded me very much of From Beyond but with a drastically lower budget.

Some monsters near the end just kind of seem like zombies stumbling around outside, which is disappointing. The idea isn't bad but as a horror fan, I really want a lot more practical effects and the lighting is rather flat.

You can see elements of The Fly in there too but it's not really unique enough on its own. The pacing is a tad slow too although I was entertained enough. The ending was great. I probably wouldn't watch it again though.

I'll start by admitting that I watched this because I saw Alex Lifeson in the cast and did a double-take. Unfortunately his scenes seemed to be shot from his own webcam in his studio with his amplifiers in the background lol. But hey, he got me to watch it!

The movie is a sci-fi/horror mystery that doesn't really explain anything and ends up being more confusing than interesting. Even though you can predict where things are going, you have no idea why. The story felt largely inspired by "From Beyond", but this movie fell short in every way. The overall production was about on the level of a moderately budgeted SyFy original movie from 2005. None of the actors stood out as being particularly effective in their roles. I saw that Slash did the music and was listed as an executive producer, and then there was a scene at the end with "Are You Afraid of the Dark?" style music that made me laugh out loud.

The biggest positives I can give are to the editing, some of the prop design, and there was some effective cinematography. And even though I wasn't enjoying the movie, the director knew how to keep me engaged and the movie was decently paced.

4/10 - I'd recommend this to someone who has fun watching bad movies, it's not painful to get through.