The Breach (2022) by Rodrigo Gudino ***Fantasia Festival 2022***

Director: Rodrigo Gudino

Year: 2022

Country: Canada

Alternate Titles: N/A

Genre: Supernatural

Plot:

Following the discovery of a dead body, a sheriff and his team head into the wilderness to find clues to help them investigate what happened, but when they discover the cause is a dangerous supernatural evil spawned into this universe and must try to stop it from spreading.

Review:

There was quite a lot to like with this one. One of the strongest features here is a rather fun and intriguing setup in place that puts everything in motion. The early setup at play here with the life of the small-town here, featuring the cliche relationship with the retiring detective about to leave the job for a more high-end job in the big city to leave the lifestyle behind him which also would include the relationship with his ex-girlfriend, gives this a great time here. None of this is all too inventive or creative but still manages to give this one a solid enough start that gives this a nice touch to discover the body and what it means going forward with their trek through the woods out to the cabin where he worked.

Once at the cabin, this one turns into a rather fun series of creature attacks and general weirdness as the arrival there unearths a series of impressive genre elements. The overall look of the desolate cabin, featuring the occult paraphernalia and various scrawlings along the walls of the cabin and the series of scientific equipment strung up throughout the lab setup, gives this one a generally uneasy vibe which offers this a great start to what's going on in the final half of this one where the exploits of the experiment come into focus and there's a rather fun turn into a demented form of creature feature chasing them around which has quite a few impressive features involving the practical effects work which all combine to give this one quite a lot to like about it.

There isn't much here that holds this one down. Most of those factors are based generally on the stagnant pacing in the first half where it takes so long to get going that it's somewhat hard to get into this one. The setup involving the trip out to the cabin and rehashing a lot of the interpersonal relationships on display causes this to stumble at times where it takes a bit to get the main point of this one out which takes a bit of the wind out of this one. As well, there's also the fact that this one tends to come off with a rather familiar air here where it's concerned in the second half as it tends to be quite obvious with what it puts out in terms of the action featured in which does tend to undo a lot of the surprise featured. These here are what hold this one down despite not being that detrimental.

Overview: ***.5/5

A fun indie genre effort that has a lot to like and only a few flaws to be had here, this one comes off rather nicely as there's not much to knock this one down from what it is. Give this a shot if you're a fan of this kind of feature or intrigued about it due to the connections at play, while most others who don't like that kind of effort should heed caution.

This review was originally published as part of our coverage of the 2022 edition of the Fantasia International Film Festival. Click the banner below for all of our coverage of the festival: