Breathing Room

I generally like movies where a group of strangers are isolated and pitted against each other because they offer a portrayal of Darwinism at work. I like the mystery of it. Who has what it takes to survive and to what lengths are they willing to go to make it happen. This could have been interesting even though it's not an original concept. What ruined it for me was the end of the film, because the audience is deprived of any explanation about the point of it all. Why did all this just happen? Was there a purpose? What the heck was the purpose? I have no idea. I would advise skipping this one unless you literally have nothing better to do with your time.

Tonya (Ailsa Marshall) is dumped naked into a room with thirteen strangers. She is player fourteen in a sadistic game where only the survivors win. With each player given clues and tools to survive, who will be left? And who is behind this? Not everyone tells the truth, so can the players trust each other to keep themselves civil? You're going to see review after review comparing this film to "Saw", and some comparing it to "Battle Royale"... still others referencing lesser known films. And, it's true, there's a "Saw" vibe here and a "Battle Royale" vibe... but don't let that dissuade you. There is nothing new about survival horror and it won't go away any time soon. And, if done correctly, that's not a bad thing.

I've also seen certain comments concerning the low budget and overabundance of white light. I don't deny these aspects, but in complete honesty they didn't bother me one bit. As long as your film has an interesting story -- and this one does -- and isn't a complete shambles, you have me hook, line and sinker. My only issue with this film was that I had a very strong suspicion of the ending from the very beginning. I was even more convinced after a big clue was dropped in the interview scene.

Fans of "Saw" will like this, as will people who like puzzles, so long as they keep an open mind and don't judge it strictly on its low budget and similarities to other films. I was thoroughly engaged by the interesting characters, destruction of film stereotypes, and ultimately the very clever writing inherent in the picture. Allegedly this film was thrown together roughly overnight, but it doesn't show.

Breathing Room pits fourteen strangers in a room to play a game. Tonya is the final contestant to be thrown naked into a room with thirteen other contestants wearing collars.

Each contestant finds a clue with their "game" clothes. When the lights go out and the game begins, people start dying. Each death brings new clues to the game. What brought this group together? Are they connected somehow? Is one of them the killer?

Saw was the first movie that I thought of when I saw a group of abducted strangers forced to play a game.

The problem with "Breathing Room" isn't just the lack of originality, it's that there aren't really any engaging characters. We don't identify with these people and none of them are appealing. We don't care about any of these characters!

The movie doesn't even work as mindless entertainment. It's boring!

14 strangers suddenly wake up and find themselves locked away in a room with no exit. They are apparently part of an elaborate game, where you must solve the riddles else you keel over and die. And all this on a budget probably even smaller than that of Cube...

You can not help but compare. And the comparison does this movie no favours. Acting is nowhere as good, execution is comparatively poor and their is no excuse for the sound guy being on Prozac during the shoot. That said a couple of actors give good, if flawed performances: David Higlen as Harry, Michael McLafferty as Lee and Brad Culver as Six.

The action moves at a pedestrian pace and the suspense is an illusion, that fleets away after a glimmer. Its not all bad, but really tiresome in the end and wouldn't want to repeat this experience. But well... at least it wasn't a Saw ripoff... so its not all bad.

First of all, and most importantly, there is no nudity in this movie. I don't know why they say "thrown naked" Maybe the producers are attempting to gain an audience for a low budget film, by saying that the girl on the cover is naked, that is misleading. The acting is fine, some better than others. The leads are pretty decent, which makes me wonder why they did this. Its The kind of movie actors & directors would do, for experience, and some extra cash. definitely wouldn't recommend it, but with a bigger budget, and more time spent on it, it would be more watchable. Probably was written, and shot over a long weekend, jumping on the bandwagon of so many other horror movies. Some moments are watchable, but again, not enough time is spent on character development, and you can tell that it was rushed, and thrown together.