Breeder

The first 1/3 kept us interested, but then it became quite boring and just went downhill from there. The ending was insanely stupid. I did not find the acting as bad as some claim, though. They should have made it at least 10 minutes shorter, also.

I can't understand all the very bad reviews. This is pretty decent compared to some of the awful stuff I've watched during lockdown boredom! The female lead is easy on the eye.

I'm surprised, and also a bit upset, to notice that so many people gave a ridiculously low rating to "Breeder" and wrote incredibly dumb things in their reviews. This certainly isn't the greatest genre effort ever made, but - come on folks - at least this is REAL horror! Like rarely seen in recent years, "Breeder" features shocking images, loathsome villainous characters, extreme gore, and nasty scenery. I don't use this sentence very often, but this movie is NOT for the squeamish or the faint of heart!

The plot isn't exactly original, since in the fifties and sixties already, there were also horror flicks in which crazed scientists attempted to manipulate the natural ageing process by abducting young woman and performing nauseating experiments on them. But it's certainly better than the series of senseless torture-porn movies of recent years and, moreover, "Breeder" holds a truly disturbing and appalling twist in store. You might want to look away when the heroine opens a certain barrel in the final act of the film.

As for the often-read criticism that the women in this film are stupid, I disagree. They certainly aren't dumber or more naïve than in most films, and the lead heroine - Mia - is a strong and likeable character. The torture sequences are sadist and gratuitous? Perhaps, but certainly not any more or less than in the average "Saw" or "Texas Chainsaw Massacre" installment, and "Breeder" at least provides a bit more content and a morbidly tense atmosphere. Most impressive are the villains. Signe Egholm Olsen is insanely hateful as the relentless female scientist, and particularly Morten Holst catapulted himself straight in the top five of most evil cinematic psychopaths ever with his aptly nicknamed character The Dog. He kidnaps and guards the women, but he isn't in for the money or the scientific value. He's the right man for the job simply because he's a sick misogynic.

Of course, I'll be the first to admit "Breeder" also contains multiple shortcomings. The Thomas-character is weak and implausible, and considering the number of women gone missing, it's incredibly unlikely there isn't a massive police hunt going on. Especially in a country like Denmark. Still, every movie has defaults, but not nearly every movie can genuinely shock and petrify. "Breeder" does, hence I'm calling out to the real genre fanatics to seek this one out.

This is a tough movie to watch. You kind of know where this will go early on. But once you are there ... boy, even with this not being as explicit as it could be, it is really going to put you through the wringer. The very beautiful woman who plays the main character has issues - or rather her husband seems to have issues to please her.

It seems he is too invested in his business. More than that actually to be truthful. And she isn't alone in that. So the movie turns on its head sort of halfway through and never looks back - no pun intended. But I'm not going to split hair(s) here - well that is an intended pun. Again this is a thriller but there is a lot of hurt and a lot pain dished out ... not wanting to handle it, does not mean one thing or another. Just be aware this is not for the squeamish.

It seems to have been inspired by ISLAND OF DR MOREAU, same scheme, but in a more modern way. Good directing and suspense too, adequate atmosphere, oppressive, stressful but unfortunately not surprising at the end. Old school cinema, I would say, though there were batches of horror movies of more or less this kind since several decades. Not a bad film, worth watching. Dario Argento or David Cronenberg would have liked it, I guess.