Two young men sit in an abandoned building and hold their breath, which causes a young female ghostly form to manifest in front of their eyes – and the longer they hold their breath, the more she does.
With a delicate touch, this is a traditional ghost story which relies more on the feeling of being a little creepy rather than delivering jump scares or spectacular effects/gore. As an approach it is too my preference and when such things are done well, they can stay with me for quite a long time. Breathe holds out such a experience with a nice clean set up visually – two basic chairs in the middle of a large empty room, with the slightest sighting of a ghostly form leading to a convincing fear reaction from Tyler (Josef Altin). This is a good base to build on, and the film continues in this vein. The idea is good and the film essentially sets the stall out well, but it doesn't quite deliver on it as it should.
It doesn't build the creepy air beyond that opening setup, instead moving too quickly to the end of the film, showing a bit too much and letting us understand too much about it so that we are not as unnerved as perhaps we were on the opening moment. Likewise, as good as Altin is at selling his fear, the script requires him to move too quickly past it and into a more accepting position which undermines the creepiness. The ending is equally a good idea but the delivery of it is too simple. It is hard to fault the production values, or the performance from Altin, but the short needed to do more with it, build on what it does well, and take its time where it benefits the short. It is decent for what it does well, but it should have been much stronger than it ultimately is.
