A low-budget offering greater than the sum of its parts, “The Breach” is a loving, albeit flawed, homage to cosmic horror.
Quick question: What do Slash (lead guitar for Guns N’ Roses), Alex Lifeson (guitar for prog rock legends Rush), the founder of Rue Morgue magazine, and Nick Cutter (award-winning author) have in common?
If you guessed involvement in a small-budget Canadian horror film dropping this July, congratulations, you’re far better at this than I am!
As a fan of cosmic horror, primarily the pioneering works of H.P. Lovecraft (though NOT a fan of Lovecraft as a human being), I tend to take notice when modern creatives skew towards that particular genre, whether through small touches or wholesale emulation.
The Breach lands somewhere in the middle, skirting the edges of otherworldly entities and madness without diving all the way in.
The film’s IMDb goes a little like this:
Counting down his last days as chief of police in the tiny town of Lone Crow, John Hawkins must investigate one last case when a mangled body with uncanny wounds washes up on the shores of the Porcupine River.
So far, so humdrum. But there’s more to the plot than that, including a scientist with an unhealthy obsession (is there any other kind in movies!?), an Amber Alert that was never resolved, ex-lover jealousy, and scratch-built gateways to other dimensions. You know, as one does.
Based on Nick Cutter’s 2020 novel of the same name, The Breach comes to us via Hangar 18 Media (they also released V/H/S/94). It was directed by Rodrigo Gudiño, founding editor and publisher of esteemed horror rag Rue Morgue (all the way back in 1997!), whose previous effort, The Last Will and Testament of Rosalind Leigh, was a festival darling.
The movie also features Slash as an executive producer (he apparently contributed to the soundtrack as well). Why is Slash involved? I have no idea, nor do I really care. Just the fact alone is pretty damn cool.
With such an oddball pedigree, I was cautiously optimistic.
To be fair, most low-budget horror is a labor of love, but to have so many disparate personalities on board with this one indicated that there was faith in the project. Add in Alex Lifeson from Rush as a wacky conspiracy theorist, and the stage was set for a good time.
The movie begins with a rather effective (and very 80s) cold open: the world’s most determined kayak is speeding downriver, seemingly empty. It hones in on a family enjoying a picnic by the lake, and when they look inside, their screams and panicked reactions are intercut with the title card in a brilliant fashion.
Ominous music plays, and the image freezes before slowly becoming smaller and smaller, fading out like a Polaroid in reverse.
It’s a beautiful mix of camp-slash-seriousness, though the rest of the film doesn’t quite keep up with that same irreverent energy.
To be fair, The Breach is actually pretty damn enjoyable. I came away pleasantly surprised: by the plot, the characters, and especially the effects. It’s rare to see a low-budget genre offering do so many things right.
First, the good.
By and large, the performances are better than one would expect.
While nobody approaches Oscar territory, the four main leads really bring it.
Photo Credit: Raven Banner
Allan Hawco, as Chief Hawkins, is our “everyman” anchor, dutifully playing the good guy in a bad situation. With a slight Colin Farrell vibe, Mr. Hawco is largely believable as he transitions from confident to bewildered to desperate.
Allan’s pseudo-love interest Meg is played by Emily Alatalo. While far too pretty to pass for a seasoned backwoods tracker and survivalist, Emily acquits herself well enough with the material she is given.
The local coroner and all-around bad boy Jacob Redgrave is played by Wesley French, who brings the right amount of snark and douchebaggery to a role that absolutely requires both. He and Meg also have a history, so you can bet that drama ensues.
The standout of the bunch, however, is Natalie Brown as Linda Parsons.
It is her missing husband and daughter that are the catalyst for the cosmic shenanigans that ensue. Mrs. Brown absolutely kills it in every scene she’s in, effectively selling the viewer on her rollercoaster of emotions, and she deserves to be in bigger budget fare as soon as possible.
The rest of the actors are serviceable in their roles, with nobody so bad that they detract from the visual narrative. Rush fans, be warned: Alex Lifeson’s involvement is little more than a couple of quick cameos, over too quickly to really resonate. Props to the Canadians for showing up for their brethren, though!
Set design is largely effective. The vast majority of The Breach takes place in an isolated house out in the Canadian backcountry, and the structure is very nearly a character unto itself. Far too well-lit to qualify as a haunted house, the small rooms and dingy conditions do help to convey a sense of danger and claustrophobia.
It is within this decrepit manse where a mysterious machine has been built, one that may be able to breach the veil between dimensions.
Where the movie really shines, however, is in its effects work.
From the “mangled body” in the kayak to bodies undergoing severe transformations (similar in certain respects to John Carpenter’s The Thing and Hellraiser), the practical effects punch well above their weight class.
There’s a fair bit of body horror taking place, and they are remarkably effective. In all honesty, it takes a lot to gross me out, and yet there were a few times when THE BREACH managed to do so. Kudos to the effects crew!
Now, the bad.
As is often the case with movies of this ilk, for every little thing that The Breach does right, it also stumbles, fumbles, and occasionally misses the goal entirely.
Our adult characters make ridiculous mistakes that are rather inexcusable, especially when two of them are ostensibly “seasoned” professionals. Such aggressive ignorance worked in Evil Dead and Evil Dead 2, but it does not work here. Also, while I expect horny kids to split up and/or not thoroughly explore the creepy-ass house they find themselves in, adults with trained survival skills making the same mistakes is just lazy plotting.
Weapons come and go (where is Linda’s shotgun?), characters are largely ignorant to what is happening around them (the house isn’t THAT big, y’all), nobody seems all that urgent when the shit hits the fan, incoming threats are just forgotten about as soon as they are out of frame, and certain plot points are either vaguely hinted at or ignored entirely.
The cosmic horror is barely touched upon and probably should have been woven into the story a little better to heighten the impact.
Common film gaffes also crop up with depressing frequency.
The film tries to establish Meg as a capable tracker and marksman… by having her shoot bottles twenty feet away with a scoped rifle. NOBODY who makes a living in the outback shoots like that. If she were an experienced outdoorswoman, her rifle would be sighted in at 100 yards minimum, and she would be verifying the accuracy thereof.
I continue to shake my head at silly firearms mistakes made in modern movies.
For being stuck in a bizarro house in the Canadian bush (yes, there’s a joke about that), which I’m pretty sure does not have running water (cuz where would it come from!?), everyone always looks freshly shaven and super attractive. Perfect hair, makeup applied, all set for a Backwoods fashion show.
Even Hollywood movies really screw this stuff up, so I can’t be TOO hard on The Breach. But still, come on…
Despite the creature and makeup effects being top-notch, the way in which the otherworldly antagonists are used is bewildering. Much like how a couple of zombies moving at 0.5 miles per hour is not threatening, shambling flesh-beasts that an elderly woman could escape with her walker just don’t qualify as frightening. And the fact that Meg simply stands her ground and never once repositions to an optimal shooting location is baffling.
I can only assume that this whole segment of the tale was handled much better in the book and that budget constraints were to blame for what transpired on screen.
On the technical side of things, I don’t have much to say.
Editing and sound design were mostly fine, although the soundtrack swells at odd times, occasionally drowning out some of the dialogue.
The opening theme stands out, but the rest of the music tended to get lost in the shuffle. To be honest, I’m not sure which particular segments were handled by Slash.
The cinematography was acceptable; no risks were taken, but there weren’t any egregious mistakes. We’ll just go with no news being good news.
I may have a lot of little nitpicks, but ultimately the movie worked for me. I can appreciate the love that went into The Breach, and I think it achieved what the filmmakers were going for. While I’ve seen scarier low-budget productions, everyone involved with The Breach deserves credit for making it better than it should have been, and I hope that Rodrigo Gudiño continues to sit in the director’s chair. I think he could be one to watch!
The mistakes the film makes are forgivable when held against everything The Breach gets right.
If you are a fan of cosmic horror and “trapped in a house that is a conduit to alternate universes” tropes, you could do far worse than The Breach.
Overall Rating (Out of 5 Butterflies): 3
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