Flasz On Film

The Breach is a film you’ve seen a thousand times. A mutilated dead body washes up somewhere. A local sheriff gets involved. A trail of breadcrumbs leads to an abandoned house in the forest. Weird stuff happens. Carnage ensues. I’m telling you – you have seen it already if you are even remotely into horror. However, is it enough of a reason to pass on the opportunity to watch it?

Absolutely not!

Any self-respecting horror aficionado will attest to the simple fact that familiarity breeds comfort. Nobody sits down to watch the umpteenth instalment of Halloween or another clone of Jaws hoping the movie would somehow reinvent the wheel. Granted, it’s fun when it happens and when tried-and-true templates are refreshed or rejigged in entertaining ways, but there is nothing wrong with a movie that commits to familiar beats and executes on its mission in a competent manner and it rarely matters if the film has some star power behind it, or if the director is a visionary. Look, Hatchet is a straight-up clone of Friday The 13^th and a dozen other slashers, but it still cooks by virtue of doing its job and providing the viewer exactly the kind of entertainment they were looking for in the first place.

That’s why I have nothing but warm words of recommendation when it comes to The Breach. Directed by Rodrigo Gudiño (and – of all people – produced by Slash), this movie is perfectly summarized as a variation on the cabin in the woods template with a cosmic twist. Think Evil Dead meets The Mist. With a subtle zombie whiff. Very subtle. Don’t get too excited, as I am not going to respond to any claims of false advertising.

Plot wise, it’s all stuff you’ve heard before. We meet a sheriff (Allan Hawco) in a small town John Rambo would have referred to as “Jerkwater, USA”, as he is about to move out for whatever reason. However, he’s presented with one last job. A badly mutilated corpse turns out in a canoe in a river and scares the living hell out of a bunch of locals gleefully enjoying a picnic – in a Haneke-esque tripod single take, mind you. One thing leads to another and the sheriff, joined by his old flame (Emily Alatalo), a fellow law enforcement officer (Wesley French) and supported from afar by a cheeky sidekick (Mary Antonini), make a trip upriver to discover a creepy-looking cabin in the woods where, it seems, a weird scientist has been up to no good and may have opened a portal to another reality. And before you know it, strange stuff starts happening, people’s fingernails are coming off and the whole affair beings to build towards a gory climax.

That’s it. That’s’ the movie.

At this point, if this isn’t enough to convince you to watch The Breach, especially if I emphasize that the movie is overall competently put together with great attention placed on executing makeup special effects, then you probably wouldn’t like it anyway. Because this movie isn’t for everyone. This is not a mainstream piece of elevated genre which Rebecca Hall or Jessica Chastain would agree to star in, but a perfectly amenable B-movie made with care and passion for the genre by people who fondly look back at the 80s. It’s that simple. Awash in Slash’s music which contributes a lot to the convincing tone of competence permeating the movie, The Breach is one of those movies that truly hides its seams and shows just how far a shoestring budget can take a determined gang of passionate filmmakers.

What is more, if you look closely and squint just the right way, you might also notice just how tightly scripted the movie is. And this doesn’t happen very often, if you know anything about B-tier horror filmmaking. In fact, you are usually expected to get on board with some measure of camp, because either the performances would be so wooden that you’d seriously accuse them of taking inspiration from the kind of acting found on Pornhub, or the writing itself would be thoroughly caked in cringe. Not here, though. With a few small exceptions – like the weirdo scientist (Adam Kenneth Wilson) who I believe was purposefully directed to come across as a Stuart Gordon character filtered through Bill Hader’s SNL-esque self-awareness – everyone in here talks the way people would talk and behaves the way people would behave… if they discovered an abandoned house in the forest full of creepy drawings and an attic with equipment nicked from the set of The Fly. It just works.

At just a touch over ninety minutes, The Breach is a perfectly commendable piece of moody horror that takes immense inspiration from Sam Raimi, David Cronenberg, Stuart Gordon and many others and packages all those inspirations into a serviceable vessel for good night’s entertainment for anyone who likes this kind of shenanigans. It’s a genre hound’s weeknight dinner: nutritious and tasty but nowhere near resplendent enough to warrant putting its picture on your Instagram. Which is perfectly fine because in 2023 nobody should really be littering the internet with pictures of their food, unless it’s Michelin-star quality or their kids made it for Mother’s Day. In any case, The Breach is a solid piece of genre filmmaking that ensnares with its assured hand, lean writing and a keen passion for prosthetics and makeup, despite never even thinking of breaking any new ground.