The Breach

If you watch a lot of movies influenced by the stories of William Hope Hodgson, H. P. Lovecraft and August Derleth, you might rate this a point or two higher because on some weird level you enjoy having your hopes dashed. For anyone else, this score might even be too generous.

It's a real shame, because the early setup of the film is great. It makes you think you're actually going to get a good Lovecraft-esque film (there's the ol' masochism again!). The opening titles are stylish. The actor who plays Connie has immediate charisma (sadly, she is underused). There's an intriguing early discovery which legitimately leads on to the next stage of the story. Sure, it's a tiny bit shaky, a little bit goofy, but that's par for the course in indie movies of the type; overall it looks like it's shaping up to be one of the good ones in the cosmic horror genre. You'll even see an actor who might recognise if you're a glutton for punishment: her from The Strain, yes (along with Connie's actor, the best performances here).

But there's a point where the wobbles suddenly escalate and soon after that the project completely falls on its arse. Any enthusiasm I had for the film ebbed away to nothing. It's as if an evil film crew came through the veil and replaced the original crew, wickedly sabotaging and unpicking all the good work that went before. Even Slash's soundtrack, which is never good, gets noticeably worse throughout.

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.

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 interesting ideas here, to be sure. Unfortunately, it feels like it borrows heavily from numerous different sources, fails to deliver a coherent storyline, well defined characters, good pacing, or a satisfying conclusion. Apparently, this is the directorial debut of one of the head honchos at Rue Morgue magazine. I can cut a little slack for lack of technical experience; not so much for failures of execution in areas that really shouldn't have been that hard to fine tune. It does feature some excellent creature effects toward the end; it just doesn't really explain why the creatures are there or why they appear when they do. All in all, not horrible, but not really worth watching either, IMO. Maybe this direcor will do better next time.

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.