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Stars: Neil Bishop, Zoe Cunningham, Martin Bishop, Zed Josef, Jonny Phillips | Written by David Trotti | Directed by Marianna Dean

Breaking Infinity is the kind of film I both love and dread seeing on my review schedule. I love it because indie science fiction is frequently full of interesting ideas and concepts that bigger-budget films don’t deal with. I hate it because, often due to their indie budgets, they can’t do those ideas justice. This film had created a bit of a buzz on its festival run, but could it live up to the hype?

Liam lies in a hospital bed as an old man shouts at him to wake up. He does, briefly appearing in a burning building before finding himself back in the hospital where he passes out only to wake up as a different, less injured, version of himself in a different version of the hospital.

One of the great things about science fiction as a genre is that you don’t need a big budget or a lot of experience to create something which will make an impression – just a strong idea and sufficient skill to flesh it out effectively. Marianna Dean’s ambitious feature début isn’t wholly original in its ideas but it makes a better fist of them that most of its peers, whilst confident direction and solid performances ensure that the audience will get something out of it regardless.

Time travel often seems like easy material for the inexperienced writer. It isn’t. it’s very easy for someone who doesn’t know what they’re doing to end up hopelessly tangled or just bore viewers to death with repetition. This film is, thankfully, smarter than that, with David Trotti’s well considered script acknowledging from the outset that a strong,...

The Nameless screens Saturday November 7th at 10pm at The Tivoli Theater as part of the St. Louis International Film Festival. Ticket information can be found Here

Review by Stephen Jones

There were quite a few other movies I wished I was watching instead of The Nameless at various points during its runtime. The one that came to mind most was Ti West’s “House of the Devil.” That and other movies like it built tension with the sort of minimalist horror that “The Nameless” would have been much better off working with. It’s one of a few different ways the filmmakers could have gone with the movie that would have been a lot more effective than what they ended up with.

The initial premise is based around the real-life event that inspired “The Exorcist.” It apparently was even shot in the real house. That alone could make for a thoroughly interesting story,...