Breathe

Smart crafted, reminding old fashion dark romance, with Gothic touch, it offers, in four minutes more than you expect and it did it in admirable manner, from atmosphere to the acting and special effects, to photography and the fair final.

Two men on chairs in a huge room. Prepaires behind a special encounter. Experience of one of young guys . And a kiss changing everything.

A young woman, like a kind of steam and the feeling of beautiful ghost stories or classic fairy tales.

Indeed, a death exactly in the top moment of intense emotion and a carpet used in precise manner , suggesting a trap are the perturbing details.

More tham, a beautiful crafted story about youth, curiosity, love and death.

The first thing to note is that this short film is NOT a horror film. I've seen a lot of negative reviews for Breathe, saying that it wasn't scary at all, other than the initial start where it starts building the anxiety and the tension, but this is not a horror short overall. This is a fantasy, drama and thriller short film, and it should be treated as such. There's too many short films that get a bad publicity and ultimately, the director doesn't get much further, because many people misinterpret the film.

Breathe is a smart horror film, based on one of the old horror tropes of ghosts that you can't see unless you hold your breath. It's a terrifying concept, but this is revived in a new way, that's almost sweet, but with a dark concept about it. Again, not really horror, more romance than anything, but this is a short film that really caught my attention.

Breathe is a very smart short film, at only four minutes fifty five seconds, that really shows just exactly what people would do for love. There's a lot within it, a lot of meaning, and a lot of hinted in the background things that really make me want to see more from this short. Although it's perfect as it is; it's the perfect length and it really shows that the director knew exactly what he wanted. The acting in this is really well done, and the scenes are well shot. The opening scene, with the fading effects, looked really, really good, and I'm honestly very, very impressed by this.

Toby Meakins is definitely a director I will be looking forward to more from; he's definitely earned a spot on my favourite shorts directors list.

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.