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Overall Rating : 5.5/10
Directed By : John Suits, Gabriel Cowan
Ailsa Marshall
David Higlen
Brad Culver
Kim Estes (Material Girls)
Supplied By : Anchor Bay Entertainment
Film Reviewed By : Rick L. Blalock
Date Reviewed : September. 23, 2008
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| PLOT Thrown naked into a desolate room with thirteen strangers, Tonya discovers that she is the final contestant in a deadly game. Restrained by lethal electronic collars, the players must utilize hints and tools from a box marked “pieces” to find both an exit and the reason for their abduction. One by one the players are eliminated as their “curfew” begins and the lights go out. With each dead body comes another clue, which they use to discover that one of them is the killer. The question is…which one? |
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| THE REVIEW At the beginning of BREATHING ROOM, Tonya is thrown into a room of total strangers, nude, and without any form of identification on her, she does not know where she is, or why she is there. It turns out that Tonya is just one of 14 "Contestants" who have been chosen to play a very special game of survival. Outfitted with color coordinated and numbered jumpsuits that signify the order in which they arrived in the room, and special collars that they are ordered not to remove. the individuals are put to the test in a number of ways. Each challenge would reveal a clue, all of which the contestants assume, will set them free, if they indeed solve the puzzle that their "host" presents to them(a man, that would appear from another room between intermissions). Speaking of the intermissions they are the times where, for a short duration, the lights would go dark, and once the lights are turned back on, it likely that at least one of the contestants would turn up dead, adding more mystery to the whole situation, while closer to reaching a conclusion. Over time we watch the contestants get to know one another, and the more that they find out, the more tension that builds between them - some of the information uncovered about some of them could lead to danger for the others. But of course, it seems that everyone has a collective goal, and that is to get out of this "game" alive, a game that promises that "not everyone is exactly how they seem". The plot for BREATHING ROOM at first glace, is immediately comparable to a number of films, most notably; HOUSE OF 9, SAW II, and CUBE - all of which pit a number of strangers against each other in some strange game for survival. BREATHING ROOM is not very different, as it shares the same premise and even some situations. It's obviously a low budget affair so you won't see the types of stunts or gore, but what you will see is a little more character relations and buildup. Favoring more toward HOUSE OF 9, BREATHING ROOM, has little back story to it, but builds it's characters through means of dialogue and conversation, and in between it throws in a number of twists(some subtle, some not so much) to keep you interested. As you watch BREATHING ROOM, since it's not high on budget, part of the reason you stay tuned in is to see how the story will progress and how the twists are both executed and implemented into the story. BREATHING ROOM, is indeed quite interesting, and its story should very well keep your interest. However the film can be rather slow at times, especially in the first act, when we are just beginning to get acquainted with our characters. There are a few of those moments where you may not understand what's going on, but it doesn't take long for one to catch on as the film's characters and the unique situations they face, eventually all become familiar. As for the acting in the film, the cast is very diverse, with each individual being different in their own way, so in turn so is their approach to acting. With most of the cast being relative newcomers, the overall acting is a mixed bag, and while some of them are not the greatest, i'd say as a whole, the cast did a decent job here. I'd say that both Ailsa Marshall(who is kind of hot as Tonya) and Michael McLafferty(Lee), are the standouts here. Overall, BREATHING ROOM is not much different than other films of it's kind, nor does it offer much originality to set itself apart from the others, but somehow I found myself being remotely interested in it. It's a low budget effort, with pretty high production values, and a story, that holds up fairly decently, which in the end leads to a conclusion that is mildly satisfying, and slightly unexpected. |
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| GORE
METER 3.5/10 There are a few gunshot wounds, impalements and stabbings, the gore is not overly utilized, I felt that there was just the right amount. |
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| MUSICAL
SCORE 3/10 Not much of a score prescense here, just some light ambiance in the background. |
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| OVERALL
IMPRESSION OF THE FILM If you are a fan of movies like HOUSE OF 9 and SAW II, there is a chance that you might find something of interest in BREATHING ROOM. I thought this film was decent for what it is, it's a low budget film, so it's obvious that it was limited in what it could display as far as gore and whatever else, and it tends to be slow in areas - but as for the film itself, I think it's at least worth seeing once. |
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