by: Letitia
Posted on 02.04.10 in All Horror Films > Psychological Thriller
Release Date: 2008

I’m a big fan of cheap horror movies. There’s one thing that talky indie movies and horror films have in common: they don’t necessarily require special effects or fancy camerawork to be effective. The things that most frighten me are mundane: insanity, the dark, being trapped somewhere small, etc. Big-budget horror movies often err on the side of telling too much, showing too much, and throwing too much money into making everything look shiny and new.

Breathing Room, a low-budget film with no recognizable actors and one major setting throughout, certainly doesn’t waste money on special effects and camerawork. The whole thing looks like it was filmed on a webcam circa 2000 and has a grainy, gritty, murky feel that generally works in its favor.

The movie begins with a young woman, naked, stumbling out into a garage-like room, where a group of people where orange jumpsuits meet her. She seems disoriented and doesn’t know how she had gotten to the room. The others don’t have answers, either, and if they do, they aren’t giving them. They are a motley bunch, including the usual types you see in movies: the cocky asshole, the handsome hero, the meek woman, the tough woman, the hot woman, and the creepy guy in glasses. Although none of the actors particularly stand out, none of them ham it up so much that they distract or ruin the film, either. For the first half hour or so, the movie’s premise and central question is enough to keep the viewer interested: who are these people, how did they get here, and why are they being forced to play this game?

After Saw, the sub-genre of “oh shit we’re trapped somewhere and we don’t know why” horror movies has blossomed. Usually they involve some group of people put in a small space for reasons that slowly unfold. Identities are shifted and our perceptions are changed. Breathing Room tries to do this, too, but the movie falls apart by the end under its own insistence on there being a reason for these people being trapped in the first place.

For example, the movie emphasizes “clues”, such as keys, notes, and tape recorders that the characters find upon their initial entrance into the room. Guns and bullets are placed in locked boxes, leading to various predictable arguments about what should be done with the guns. It is revealed, by a video projection, that there is a rapist, murderer, and child molester in the group, amongst others. For a while, the movie seems to be interested in the play between the characters, the way that personalities, views of the world, and fears determine our actions. Unfortunately, the possible conflicts aren’t followed through. We are led to believe that the “game” should result in the “bad” people being punished. Instead, the movie is interrupted with with “blackout” scenes, where one character generally ends up killed for no explicable reason. The clues, videos, and audiotapes add nothing to the plot. Ultimately, the murders make no sense and give no insight into why these individuals have been placed together.

The end of the movie comes abruptly, and within a five-minute sequence, the “mystery” of the “game” is solved…but it doesn’t make sense, and it leaves more questions than it answers. In attempting to wrap-up the mystery, the movie collapses.

• ★★★★★

  Acting:

• ★★★★★

  Blood:

• ★★★★★

  Violence:

• ★★★★★

  Partying:

• ★★★★★

  Language:

• ★★★★★

  Humor:

• ★★★★★

  Predictable:

• ★★★★★

  Girls:

• ★★★★★

  Gore:

• ★★★★★

  Sexuality:

• ★★★★★

  Torture:

• ★★★★★

  Overall: