[Fantasia 2022 Review] The Breach Mixes Body Horror, Creatures and Nick Cutter's Signature Gooeyness

You mention the author Nick Cutter around horror book fans and a few images probably come immediately to mind…and none of them pretty. The Troop’s goopy mix of body horror, worms and The Lord of the Flies, for instance. Or maybe the more eldritch horror of The Deep. Two years ago, the author also made an Audible Original in The Breach, a film that feels like a thematic sibling to these two books with the way in which it incorporated the invasive body horror of The Troop with the more cosmic horror roots of The Deep. It’s a goopy and gooey horror experience filled with bugs and body horror with a wisp of a ghost story, set in a decrepit house in the middle of nowhere. 

Now we have an adaptation by TV writer Ian Weir and directed by Rodrigo Gudiño (The Last Will and Testament of Rosalind Leigh) and for most of the runtime, it seems like a great adaptation. But whether it was budget or some creative decision, it unfortunately falls apart in the third act before somewhat redeeming itself in the final moments. 

It begins with a canoe slowly drifting out of the Canadian wilderness until it washes up on a beach where families are gathered. One look at the contents of the canoe send the families screaming and the title The Breach emblazoned on the screen. Soon police, led by sheriff John Hawkins (Allan Hawco), his deputy Connie (Mary Antonini) and forensic pathologist Jacob Redgrave (Wesley French), show up on the scene to look at the disgusting remains. Turns out there was a body in the canoe…if you can call what remains a body. It’s a disgusting mess of flesh, the bones completely missed. “The guy’s insides have been shredded,” Jacob says with shock. The weirdness continues as they discover the man has an extra finger and they pull a dead wasp out from inside the shredded flesh.

Luckily, the man had an ID on him identifying him as Cole Parsons, a doctor of physics from Oklahoma. Turns out, he’s been holed up in a house in the middle of the forest and, again fortuitously, he charted a boat ride from Meg Fullbright (Emily Alatalo) up to the relatively obscure house. Of course, Meg has history with both Jacob and John and, like any good cop in a horror movie, John is about to leave his small town of Lone Crow. But the uneasy trio of frenemies head up in Meg’s boat to the mysterious house to unravel the mystery surrounding the dead body, the wasp (that seems to be more alive than initially thought) and a giant machine in the heart of the dilapidated house in the woods. 

The Breach has a fantastic central mystery and once the trio get to the house, it exudes an ominous and mysterious atmosphere. The set design and look of the house, the windows boarded up and the house devoid of energy and life, until moments where something roars to life and powers it, is fantastic. The design and feel of the film feels like classic Nick Cutter, with flourishes of Stephen King’s influences dripping from the house. This central mystery propels most of the story, as characters appear to constantly make the viewer question what’s really going on in this creepy house. The sense of isolation quickly escalates, as the trio are cut off from civilization as the radios cut in and out and their boat vanishes. 

The house and the narrative are awash in splashes of a ghost story, as mold patches seem to turn into specters, doors open and close on their own and the feeling of being watched is all pervasive. Body horror is also on tap, as a character gets stung by a wasp and starts having horrific reactions involving nails and splitting irises and more. For most of the runtime, the mystery and flourishes of gross violence keep the film moving at a good pace. Unfortunately, as it tries to resolve the tension it starts to show its seams. While the practical and visual effects are mostly fantastic, some of the effects in the third act don’t fare too well in the sunlit-dripped outdoors. As it veers somewhat into creature feature territory, you can almost see the so-called monster suit zippers (to paraphrase Stephen King). 

Also somewhat uneven is the score by Slash and Aybars Altay. The opening theme (attributed to Altay, at least according the somewhat unreliable IMDb) is stunning and sets the tone perfectly. But the score is sometimes out-of-touch with what’s happening on screen and fails to effectively build tension. Other times, it works but feels somewhat muted, given that Slash worked on it. 

The end result is a mishmash of fantastic mystery and world-building and messy execution. The Audible Original’s framework probably required a larger budget than the filmmakers had and they didn’t do much to help themselves by framing some of the lesser quality creature effects in the daytime. It’s unfortunate because when it worked, it soared with the mystery and the horror. The pieces don’t completely come together as it careens into the climax, but the final shots are darkly comedic.