Just when you thought horror movies had explored all there is to explore, Alex Goyette’s film, Breeder, enters the mix. Goyette joins the likes of Curry Barker, Danny and Michael Philippou, and Kane Parsons as a horror filmmaker who began his career on YouTube. There’s a scrappiness that comes from these roots; a do-it-yourself mentality because no one else has allowed directors like Goyette to get hands-on experience in acting, producing, writing, directing, and editing long before there was a paycheck. It’s no wonder that his sophomore effort, Breeder, is a taut, nasty little horror flick in pursuit of perfection.
Like most dreamers, Russell (Daniel Doheny) has a lot of ideas and very little money. He left MIT to dedicate all his time to researching the decline of the bee population. He has a colony of his own and believes that his initial observations could help the species thrive, but no one wants to give money to a college dropout. That is, until he receives a check in the mail for thousands of dollars from a poodle breeder, Patti (Dot-Marie Jones), who thinks Russell might be onto something. Despite every alarm bell going off in his brain, Russell travels to Patti’s remote home to talk about his findings. Upon arrival, he meets Patti’s five daughters and learns why it is that she’s brought him there.
Courtesy of Shannon Attaway
It’s not much of a spoiler to say that Patti wants to take her skills in dog breeding and begin to experiment with human breeding. Or, as Russell bluntly says, eugenics. Yes, Breeder is a captive horror movie about the evils of eugenics, and it works far better than it has any business working. That’s thanks mostly to Jones, as Patti. With the Glee reboot happening, Ryan Murphy had better give Jones a call and fast. She’s so harrowingly imposing that Breeder should be the beginning of a long horror movie villain career for her.
Similarly, Ainsley, played by Maddie Phillips, is an interesting wrinkle to the conceit of Breeder. She’s one of Patti’s daughters, but she’s also warm and sweet to Russell, immediately joking that they aren’t a cult. They aren’t, at least not in the sense that any of the daughters chose to be there. Like Russell, they’re prisoners of Patti, but there’s also the very real chance they could be brainwashed. Some of the other daughters are easier to read when it comes to their relationship with Patti, but Ainsley initially comes across as a little gray. She could be offering Russell a way out, or she could have Patti’s best interests at heart. Phillips gives enough to both sides of the equation to keep the audience guessing.
Courtesy of Shannon Attaway
Horror movies are made or broken by their endings, and Breeder delivers a wallop. Without giving spoilers, the film concludes on such a bleak, but realistic ending. With a set-up like this one, it would be easy to devolve into madness. To go fully gonzo and let campy chaos rein supreme. But if you’ve suspended your disbelief enough to buy into Breeder’s premise, this is the natural ending. At the end of the day, it’s not about poodle breeders or saving bees, it’s about capitalism, and Breeder doesn’t let you forget it.
“Only certain people should be allowed to reproduce,” Patti says. After all, she only uses certain dogs to reproduce. Shouldn’t humans follow suit? Jones is such a commanding force in the film that even though she’s spewing the worst things, you want her to keep coming back into each scene to watch her tower over this domain. Breeder is crafty, and far more wily than the premise might lead one to believe.
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