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Review: Hold Your Breath

holdyourbreathI’ve heard the urban legend before, the one about holding your breath while passing by a cemetery so that a spirit doesn’t hitch a ride in you. That’s basically the only reason why I watched this movie. Plus, it was free while playing on the Chiller Network, so why not?

Hold Your Breath is written by Geoff Meed and Kenny Zinn with director Jared Cohn. These guys also made me want to watch this title because they have a number of impressive credits wracked up together including 12/12/12, “Buffy The Vampire Slayer,” and Resident Evil: Extinction. Cast members of Hold Your Breath include Katrina Bowden (Tucker & Dale vs. Evil, Piranha 3DD, Scary Movie 5), Randy Wane (Terror Tunes 2, The Haunting of Molly Hartley, “True Blood”), Erin Marie Hogan (Paranormal Entity, Axeman at Cutter’s Creek), Steve Hanks, Brad Slaughter, Seth Cassell, Darin Cooper, Jordan Pratt-Thatcher, Lisa Younger, and a cameo by scream queen Devanny Pinn.

“There is an old wives’ tale that you should hold your breath when passing by a cemetery lest an evil spirit rejected by both heaven and hell gets inside of you when you inhale. Someone in a carload of college kids on holiday doesn’t hold his/her breath when driving by a graveyard, allowing the spirit of a recently executed serial killer to get inside him/her to begin a spree of body-jumping carnage.”

With seriously such an incredible cast and crew, this movie couldn’t be that bad, right? Well, it sort of is.

Let’s start with the plot. It’s the first time I’ve seen this particular urban legend addressed as a feature film, so in that respect it gets a lot of applause for originality. However, in my opinion, the script needed a little work. Its low points were really low and I quickly found myself losing interest. I’m sure that this contributed to me being confused about the storyline from time to time. A script that is new and original also has to be cohesive and attention grabbing to hold up well with viewers.

The special effects are touchy as well. They range from looking super professional (whether make up or CGI) to looking like someone’s first paid gig. What really hurts the special effects critique is the fact that they repeat the same injury over and over again. Speaking as a horror fan myself, I think one of the biggest draws of the genre is anticipating when and how the characters are going to die. Again when you lose that attention grabbing material, viewers such as myself will tune out. Although, I did like all the eye gouging!

As far as acting goes, this aspect too was on the fence. Do you see a trend here? As I mentioned above, the cast (and crew) is filled with really talented and recognizable actors. I’ve seen most of these actors’ other titles before, so it’s not like they’re slouches. With that said, the acting performances here were either really good or lacking any believable emotion. Maybe production issues and time constraints limited the actors’ performances, but I was really hoping for more. I will say that the acting here is better than other indie titles.

Hold Your Breath left me wanting way more, but it was far from terrible. A good effort that lacked all the necessary pieces throughout. I’m going to rate it 5.7 out of 10 stars. I’m literally smack dab in the middle of liking it and hating it; and it gets a few extra points for beautiful set locations and cinematography.

Michael DeFellipo

(Senior Editor)

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