Respire

Budget and limited thespians weigh down this otherwise very entertaining supernatural chiller.

A young woman suffers from a terminal disease. During the course of her work, she meets a man who asks her to auction a mysterious box for him. When she takes the box home, she opens it and literally breathes new life into herself....with dire consequences.

Tracy Teague is a one-expression actress and has a tough time carrying the movie the whole way through. Fortunately, a cast of interesting supporting characters keep us on out toes, and the director definitely knows how to keep the pace going.

Except for a couple of murders and the climactic carnage, the movie is short on grue but high on suspense. Budget restrictions does show, especially in the ending, but it never looks cheap. Although the twists are predictable, I found myself smoking only 1 cigarette throughout, which is my own barometer for good entertainment. Recommended.

Movie was good at times but sunk into typical horror pitfalls. With a little more thought, and a few better actors this could have rated a 7 or 8.

The story itself was a great idea but the execution left something to be desired. The acting was better than I expected, however some of the acting, primarily by the young couple/bullies, was so bad it actually distracted from the better acting. Some scenes were well written while other weren't as much and many scenes seemed rushed and left you wanted more.

While there was a nice unexpected twist, I must say the end was so stupid, it almost ruined the movie. It was so cheesy and low, low budget special effects. The ending (red zone) is what made me give it a 4 instead of a 5.

Although I wouldn't really recommend the movie, I wouldn't completely discount it either.

I had been wanting to see this ever since I heard about it a couple years ago (and I liked the director's last film a lot) and I can say that I enjoyed it...for the most part. A dying woman gets a new lease on life when she inhales from a mysterious vial but then she starts having weird visions and murderous tendencies. Sounds pretty simple, right? If that's all the movie was about, I think this would totally rock. As it is it only sorta rocks. There's an awful lot of back story that needs to be told for you to understand what's going on. That's okay but it does make the middle drag. The opening credit sequence which follows a box through all of the decades is really, really well done and the last half hour, once it actually becomes a horror is entertaining as well. For the acting, the two leads are good. The rest of the cast...eh, not so much. I would say that if you go into it knowing that the middle part drags but will pay off later on (there's a pretty cool scene with a tied-up girl where you would swear that the actress is genuinely terrified of what's off-screen), then you might enjoy it a little more. Overall, I'd recommend it but only if you're not looking for a super scary horror and you're willing to pay attention the whole time. By the way, if they released a soundtrack, I'd buy it. Some of the songs were really good.

I really enjoyed this film. Respire has a great mix of mystery, suspense and horror. There are some very memorable scenes with outstanding atmosphere. The director did a great job of covering the large scope of the film without the large budget. There are some great moments in Respire that caused me to jumped from my chair. On the negative, a few lines in the script felt a bit "wordy" as if the actors are trying to explain too much to the audience. I also feel some of the character's actions are a little too predictable, but overall the film is more surprising than many big budget Hollywood movies. I am looking forward to checking out some of David Cross's other films. I say go ahead throw Respire in the DVD player late one night, sit back, and enjoy the movie.