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.

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.

I'd heard of The Breach back in 2022 and certainly found the basic premise to be intriguing. A small town police chief (played by Alan Hawco) is investigating the apparent death of a former CERN physicist after a corpse is discovered upon a drifting boat. As he explores the man's remote home, he makes horrific discoveries about his experiments...

Written by Nick Cutter of The Troop fame, with clear Lovecraftian influences, the story is solid and sets up a nice mystery. The effects are mostly well executed (though, please, can horror films reduce their use of smoke machines?), the creature designs are suitably detailed and revolting, Hawco is cleary charming in the lead and the film is brave enough not to bombard the viewer with gore from the start. It is, however, not without its problems, some minor, others not so minor. The film would have benefitted from more focus on the central mystery and trying to build more intrigue around it. Whilst the pacing is reliable throughout, it doesn't create the energy and haste needed during its finale. And, probably my biggest complaint is the ending: it's too predictable and left me feeling dissatisfied. I think they could have been braver without some of their choices in final act.

I do feel it is necessary, however, to point out that it maintained my interest for 90 minutes, didn't decide to draw itself out for a wholly unnecessary 2-plus hours and, for an indie production, it looks excellent. Worthy of a rental for horror fans.

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.