[Film Review] The Breach (2023)

Warning: This review contains spoilers.

Isn’t it great that there’s now an almost universally accepted shorthand for spooky, interdimensional stories that play with the fabric of time and often introduce creatures the simple mind cannot fathom? Instead of writing all that out, we just say “Lovecraftian Horror” and the avid viewer can fill in the blanks themselves. Rue Morgue founder and director Rodrigo Gudiño in his second full-length feature presents us with The Breach; based on the book by Nick Cutter, a Lovecraftian sci-fi thriller where an idyllic Canadian town abruptly becomes the portal between realities when the local sheriff starts investigating the mysterious body that washes up on the shores of the Porcupine River. No Cthulhus as such, but spoilers ahead because what he discovers is too good not to describe. 

It's a beautiful day on the shores of the Porcupine River, in the seemingly quiet and of course, rather secluded wilderness town of Lone Crow. A family is enjoying a day out with food, games, and it’s just merry folks being merry until an abandoned canoe floats into their midst. That’s when the screaming starts. And we’re off with the very Fulci-esque title card and opening theme and Officer Hawkins (Allan Hawco), the chief deputy in charge of the town now has one final case before he retires. Ah, but it’s always that final case, isn’t it?

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The story starts off in pretty much the standard one-two-three steps of any mystery. The body with intriguing details that sets it apart from that of an ordinary wilderness mishap; mangled beyond recognition with an extra digit growing out of one of its hands and a wasp, caught within. A local mystery with hush-hush details only whispered about by those in the know; a missing scientist who shacked up in an isolated house, whose young daughter also disappeared before him. And a police chief in a small town with too many awkward connections and too many things at stake; Hawkins on the brink of checking out of town without letting anyone know having to call upon local tracker Meg (Emily Alatalo), his former lover, and the coroner, Jacob (Wesley French), her current boyfriend, to investigate the scientist’s quarters. Surely, nothing bad will happen to them in a place only reachable by boat with all this uncomfortable tension mirrored in their relationships to each other. Oh, and then we find out Meg is pregnant. By Officer Hawkins. No big deal, it’s probably fine that she’s stomping through tetanus central and beyond as her current boyfriend glares at her while being eaten alive by wasps. Ah, there’s another mention of wasps. That probably means nothing. Especially since he’s the only character of color as the indigenous person among them and historically, they make it out swimmingly in these genre tropes. 

While the story advances rather predictably with the sheriff’s deputy back at homebase diving into deeper research on the missing scientist whom she confirms is the dead body; Cole Parsons, (a particle physicist no less, that’s not leading at all) it’s the ambience that adds the most flavor to the visuals developing onscreen. The house the trio comes upon has all the trappings of an abandoned no-no site in the deep woods. It’s decrepit and dark and has a thousand nooks and crannies that seem to expand and shrink as their flashlights bounce around the seemingly changing surfaces. The score, composed and performed by executive producer Slash (yes, that one), highlights the traditional jump scares without outright shocks but rather, more leading liquid unease. It creates the feeling that this house and what the three have stumbled upon is not entirely solid and that is essentially the case. In the basement is the missing scientist’s lab filled with sketches of oddities and images that go beyond Dr. Frankenstein to alternate reality Promethean dreams and in the attic is a keyhole shaped contraption. During a night-time power outage, while Meg and Hawkins have a particularly heartfelt moment (your boyfriend is in the next room!), said boyfriend walks through it in a fugue state.  

Well, the wasp leitmotif was certainly going to lead to somewhere beyond Jacob’s Canadian Nic Cage impression albeit with a different member of the insect family because back at headquarters, the dead wasp rescued from the body’s cavities comes back to life. Far be it from a resurrection machine discovered in the attic though, as the story would lead us to believe, there’s more afoot. The source the deputy has been consulting on Dr. Parson’s background insinuates his work led him to this secluded spot because he was fired for his experiments in Switzerland. “The Mandela Effect!” He garbles. “The world has not been the same since scientists started playing with particles and collapsing micro black holes.” This would be nonsense if not for what he thinks is a thought-provoking example. Was a certain peanut butter brand called Jif or Jiffy?! He has people swearing fealty to both sides. Well, he should have stuck to Berenstain vs Berenstein Bears because any horror fan worth their salt would’ve cleared that right up. Jif is the pb and Jiffy is the popcorn, we’ve all watched the opening scene of Scream a thousand times. But we can’t expect scientists to be up to date on popular culture. We can, however, expect them to stay dead, except Dr. Cole Parsons is not. He strolls into the house as fine as can be right as the Cole Parsons Project really gets under way.

Dr. Parsons may have reached out and touched on new realities but as so often is the case, their inhabitants embraced back. As Jacob’s new body erupts from his old skin, Meg and Hawkins must fight back to destroy him (ah, the prophecy fulfilled) as well as all the other…experiments. Though it could have been very easy at this point to turn into a basic zombie menace flick, the specimen special effects are something to behold with the foreshadowing of the extra finger and lab images. Skinless humanoids, many-faced versions of people coming out of the portal wrong, a wall of eyes and flesh like a biblically accurate hell angel, it’s an oozing viscous feast for the eyes if you’re into that (I am). Plus, you must appreciate a pregnant damsel in distress holding them off with a shotgun in a finale of equal division of labor among the sexes.

While the love triangle may be a little strained at times and the impediment to the main relationship quickly and rather fortuitously dispatched—creating a relationship story that is more digestible rather than believable—the strength of the story lies not with the blandness of the main characters but of the world created around them. The typical haunted house aura is quickly dispelled when The Breach reveals itself to be what it truly is about; reality bending as much as genre-melding, because the thrill is not in seeing a dark spot in the ceiling expand over a character or a door close on its own but rather, those small uncanny valley details of the actual characters that begin to amp up as the tension mounts. Moments like when Jacob’s pupils split as he watches himself in the mirror during his transformation or the doctor calling his wife by a beloved nickname with the inflection all off are the true strengths of the story. It is also refreshing to watch the main action sequence of a movie set in the daylight where every detail can actually be seen rather than relying on darkness to create the drama of the climax. Seeing the creatures emerge from the woods in their full red glory would not have been as effective if the final showdown had taken place at night as so often is the case.

Montreal’s Fantasia Film Festival hosted the film’s world premiere in July 2022 and the UK premiere took place at Frightfest the following month. The Breach was released digitally on July 10th and is available on VOD.

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