Breathing Room (I) (2008) User Reviews

Boring, Unoriginal, Pointless and Disappointing

[claudio_carvalho · 4/10 · 10 June 2009]

A group of fourteen strangers wearing electronic necklaces are locked in a large room without any previous explanation. Sooner they are informed by a man in a monitor that they are participating of a deadly game, where the prize of the winner would be his or her own life, but they should follow certain rules to stay alive. Further, the man tells that there is one rapist, one murdered and one pedophile among them. Under the leadership of Lee (Michael McLafferty), the contestants try to resolve their own suspicions to survive.

After the original 1997 "Cube", there are many rip-offs of strangers locked in an environment participating of a sick game, like for example the franchise "Saw"; or "House of 9" or the 2006 "Unknown"; therefore, "Breathing Room" is unoriginal. Unfortunately "Breathing Room" is not even a "good rip-off" because the story is boring and annoying in some moments; and the unexplained conclusion of the scientific experiment the team was submitted is pointless and disappointing. Who are the scientists? What is the objective of the sadistic experiment? Why those persons have been selected to participate? The viewer has no answer for these simple questions; therefore the story and the screenplay absolutely fail. In the awesome 2001 "Das Experiment", there is a previous explanation for teaming-up the guinea pigs. However the acting is great and the actors and actresses are able to transmit their claustrophobic tension and pain to the viewers. My vote is four.

Title (Brazil): "O Quarto do Inferno" ("The Hell's Room")

Some suspense, although the game is rather stupid

[extracoolguy1 · 5/10 · 4 July 2008]

Early on in the movie we learn that there are a bunch of people kidnapped and locked in a room. The 'host' is playing a 'game' with them, and it's the 'contestants' job to figure out whats going on. This movie kind of reminded me of the movie Saw(alone with its sequels). The problem is that the Saw movies teach a lesson in a way because if the individual is smart enough/deserves/wants to live, then they end up living. This isn't really like that. Although the contestants really did nothing wrong, only 1, at most, will survive. The contestants don't really stand a chance from the beginning.

The suspense was fairly good - which is the main reason i gave it a 5. Its not a film you'll fall asleep while watching and certainly interesting to watch. Acting was alright. However a big problem was the ending. The ending was not something I predicted, however, it made me feel unfulfilled and shows the stupidity of this 'game'. There was also not much of a climax - it always felt like they were building to something. It felt like they should have had a bigger climax before the ending. And then the ending comes, and it wasn't that shocking.

Overall, good concept, early and middle parts of the movie were good, but the ending was weak. 5/10

Ii felt like a lot of things where missing

[Lokado · 4/10 · 15 July 2008]

I started to watch it with high expectations, the overall image i got from it was that it had good potential.

however, when I watched the video it felt like there was no real connections to the characters, they all die off to fast and a lot of the story is left to guesswork. It felt like most of the movie was trivial and just extra time fill. It's not that i mind that they kill people, but its just that somehow, their deaths didn't seem to be of any impact (on the story) whatsoever. The end(which i will not discuss further) didn't satisfy me at all.

I personally figured that it would be something like "the cube", but that was (in my opinion) a hope that I had set to high. After having sat through the whole movie I didn't feel like i had really enjoyed myself, the movie has some exciting parts but somehow they managed to mess it up. All in all, not a movie that i'd recommend unless you really have nothing better to do.

holds no surprises

[therefdotcom · 2/10 · 14 July 2008]

this movie can be categorized into my favorite genre: "x people find themselves stuck in a room for no apparent reason to find out that they are part of some kind of cruel game whose rules they don't know yet". unfortunately this "genre" so far has only brought too much lame attempts and so little interesting concepts. so far i have enjoyed cube, saw (1-x), red room (1&2) and house of nine. the last one gets kinda boring after a while, but seen in full length makes up for it.

there are some major flaws in this piece from the very beginning. the amateurish look, feel, acting, lightning, cut and scene building might amuse/annoy on the first look, but with a strong story could have been ignored. that on closer look is not the major problem here. the script does not work on a full concept basis, it either lives from scene to scene which loses it's thrill within the first 30 minutes. even though the players get hints about the rules and about the game itself, if you try to put the puzzle together you will find that there really is nothing to gain in this "game", which is a letdown. when compared to the other mentioned movies it becomes clear, that the rules themselves are bogus, the scenario is senseless and that even the choice of contestants is random. in the other mentioned movies there are clear rules, a more or less clear goal, every player has a function within the game, in most cases we even get explained what function each player has within the games. this is not the case here. even more the outcome of the movie should become clear to everyone that is familiar with this kind of movies. this lick mostly tries to live by the suspense how the writers explain everything in the end. i lost interest after 60 minutes as i already have figured that ending out and not to my surprise my conclusion was exactly what was shown at the end of the movie.

some of this flaws i have already seen in "house of 9" which also gets pretty annoying towards the end, but eventually makes up for it with a clever conclusion.

i find this movie too effordless on an objective level and it is even more disappointing keeping in mind that so many movies before already had that concept and that the writers still did not even try to make this conclusive or clever. movies like that up to a certain point live or die by the ending/conclusion. this one fails to deliver.

Poor visuals make this unwatchable

[movie_ape · 2/10 · 7 October 2020]

Shaky camera with blue filters and fake HDR darkness put over everything. Could not really see what was going on; nor hear for that matter, since the audio was poorly balanced and not recorded clearly.

Plot wise, a blonde girl with no bra on is thrown into a room full of men and an old lady and a teenage girl. After this you watch the men leer at her, and that is about as complex as the writers went in this film.

Whatever this film was supposed to say was lost in incredibly bad filming techniques. I had to give up on the watch before half way.

Dreck!

[alexandrajade · 2/10 · 26 January 2011]

This movie falls under my emerging favorite microgenre of "X number of people locked together in a room who have to escape/kill each other/figure something out/some combination therein." There have been very good movies in this microgenre (Cube, Exam, the original Saw), good movies in it (Cube 2), fair/decent movies in it (Nine Dead), and terrible movies in it (House of Nine). I'm not sure any have been truly great, but this microgenre is more of a guilty pleasure than anything. And there are more movies in it that I've not yet seen (Fermat's Room, Unknown).

This movie has a somewhat ambitious group of gameplayers, numbering 14. We start off over the shoulder of the 14th player, the drop-dead sexy blonde on the poster (yeah, that didn't really hurt as a reason why I wanted to watch this, either :) ) They're wearing metal collars, and are housed in a stripped-down warehouse with placards attached to the walls that give them "rules" that they're meant to follow, like "players must keep their hands clean" and "players may not adjust their collars." Stashed throughout the warehouse are "hints" such as "player 5 is not telling the truth" or "player 14 is the key" or cryptic ones like "piece the pieces together" or, most tellingly, "there is a serial killer, rapist, and pedophile in this room." Eventually, a host comes on a video screen and tells them that the game has begun, and one player will win the best prize of all - life. This already is nothing we haven't heard before many a time. At irregular intervals, the lights go out and someone is killed. Others are killed for breaking rules.

Then, when there's only three or four left, a new person, player zero, is added. Already I'm wondering what the point of this is. They succeed in getting his collar off, which means he's allowed to break the rules. They put together that a box of bullets, a bottle of alcohol, and a cigarette lighter are meant to blow up an obstruction at the end of a hallway behind the door. OK, now we might be getting somewhere. Except oops, we're not. Time for player zero to die. Sure hope he enjoyed his ten minutes in the film.

The big twist at the end is that the sexy blonde is the killer. While fairly predictable, it's not the worst decision they could have made with the story. Unfortunately, they followed it up with the worst decision they could have made with the story.

The movie essentially doesn't have an ending. After everyone else is dead, Blondie casually removes her collar and goes into some kind of back room, where a dude behind a computer terminal sits working. He asks if they got what they needed, and she says they always do. Then she goes to her own terminal, looking over the files of the people she'd just murdered (I...guess?) and suits up to do it all again.

So...it's a group of scientists who.....murder people? That's the closest we come to any kind of an explanation of what's going on. The movie builds toward "Ok, they're gonna figure it all out, they're gonna escape, they're gonna find out what this was all for," but...no. Not even close. Not even a whiff of it, like the ending to Cube. And of course, there's some false-protagonist goofs (Blondie listens to an audio tape while alone in the bathroom that does not speak to her as the killer, but as a "player." Why, if she's in on it, would she need to listen to that tape while she's alone in the bathroom? Only to fool the viewer, which is LAZY). Piece the pieces together? There was NOTHING to piece together! There was no game at all - the 13 "players" were automatically dead the whole time.

But worse yet, it's just a very cheaply made movie. The Foley for the lights-out attacks is just laughably bad. If you've ever been around someone who's lost their balance and taken a tumble, you know what it sounds like when a body hits the ground. Apparently, that's not the case with whoever did the Foley for this movie. It was just cartoonish and cheesy. It was sort of confusing during the murdering that the characters seemed to react like they were in pitch blackness, but a very clear red emergency light was on. Was that just for the viewers? Again, lazy.

The acting, believe it or not, is by and large okay. It gets the movie its second star. I thought about bumping it up to three, but those babbling old women take it down a notch. Really, they're horrible. I wanted to personally stick a knife through the eye of...number three, I think (the one who screams and stutters after the host first appears on the screen). But everyone else does okay. Number five, the rapist, exudes EXTREME creepiness when he's just talking about his favorite kind of candy, so you can imagine how skin-crawlingly disgusting it is when he goes in for...well, trying to go in. The sexy blonde, the dashing male lead, the guy with the gun, (he reminded me a lot of Gael Garcia Bernal's character in "Blindness," which was quite possibly the only good thing about THAT movie, but that's a story for another time) all solidly performed, along with the supporting roles who didn't stay as long. But while a solid/good screenplay can lift so-so acting (I refer again back to Cube), the reverse doesn't really happen.

To put it simply, this movie sucked. Recommend steering clear.

Woefully bad composed "Horror"-movie

[lord_agin · 1/10 · 31 July 2008]

I am not a big fan of horror movies, and nasty examples like "Breathing Room" are the main cause for it. For a non-magical horror movie to entertain me, it must, above everything else, have one thing: an intelligent and satisfying end. I don't say that the good guys have to win, but at least the movie should end in a fashion that shows me, that all the crimes committed were not only possible, but also have the bad guys a working plan on how to get away with all of their crimes, and that is something I completely miss in this movie. Following are my main points of criticism:

[1] As I understood it, all the murders were committed while the white light was out and a soft red light was on (with the exception of the three to five seconds of the actual murders, during which it was pitch black, making it impossible to see anything not only for the victim, but also for the killer). That should not keep anybody from seeing what was done and who executed the deed, I mean, she would have to move towards her victim and be panting afterwards, if she really did run so fast (and often). The filmmakers tried to hide this fact behind a lot of camera-jiggling and -wobbling, which should imply that nobody saw clearly, but I found it plainly ridiculous.

[2] What was her (and her cronies) motive? What did they gain from this carnage? This topic is never even touched once.

[3] How did the killers meet? I refuse to believe that you just "find" a bunch of people who are willing to abduct and butcher completely innocent people by the dozen, or at least help the actual killer to do so.

[4] How did they plan on disposing of the enormous amount of bodies?

Apart from that, the acting was mostly average, and thus far from credible for an impossible situation like this.

I gave this movie 1 star, because I really regard it as a shameful waste of my time. Don't believe me? Go waste 90 minutes of your own time.

A very unappealing rip off of the "Saw" series.

[timb75 · 3/10 · 6 July 2008]

This film is for the most part just like the "Saw" series. More like Saw 1 actually then the other two though. You basically have a group of kidnapped people trapped in a room where they're picked off one by one till there is one person left who then gets to go free. The only real difference is this film is horrible. The sound effects were so fake sounding, the characters were annoying at best and the story went basically no where. The twists in this film were so lame and didn't really change the plot at all. It just wasn't scary enough either. You never see anything graphic which also brings this movie down. The Saw series completely blows this film out of the water. I'd pass on this one.

Concept is trite but the execution is good

[refdan · 6/10 · 4 July 2008]

The film begins with a naked woman entering a room of strangers with in a warehouse type of setting. The strangers approach her and begin asking questions about who she is and what does she know about why she is here and what it's all about. The rest of the film involves learning about each other and little more about the "puzzle" of why they are here.

The premise is that there is game being played with the characters' lives. There are rules. If you break the rules, you die.

The plot is simple, but the interactions of the "players" is what keeps it interesting. Each "player" is unique and may or may not have something to hide.

I found the story interesting, but contrived. Some of the characters were a bit over-the-top for my taste, but most of them conveyed the fear, anger, and despair quite convincingly. The end of the film was a disappointment to me for reasons I won't divulge here.

I credit the producers for developing a good character study with very little investment. Good cinema doesn't always have to cost millions.

If you like a bare bones type production about human behavior in stressful conditions, then I recommend this to you.

Could Have Been Good if There was a Point

[shannonlong636 · 5/10 · 13 August 2020]

I generally like movies where a group of strangers are isolated and pitted against each other because they offer a portrayal of Darwinism at work. I like the mystery of it. Who has what it takes to survive and to what lengths are they willing to go to make it happen. This could have been interesting even though it's not an original concept. What ruined it for me was the end of the film, because the audience is deprived of any explanation about the point of it all. Why did all this just happen? Was there a purpose? What the heck was the purpose? I have no idea. I would advise skipping this one unless you literally have nothing better to do with your time.

Good not great

[naacontact · 9/10 · 10 July 2008]

I see what others on this forum are saying about the film being similar to other films. Although, I'd say it's more like Battle Royale than anything else. That said, it completely has its own original take.

If you like original films, and can get into a homespun low budget thriller, this is what the doctor ordered. It is NOT a big budget movie, but it will keep your interest, and you won't ever go "Oh my god, that's so stupid" or "Man that was bad acting".

Some of the deaths could be better, some of the effects could be more expensive, and the ending could be more clear. But it's there if you think about it it's actually really interesting.

So I say, watch the film, get into the group dynamic, get into watching Ailsa Marshall give a great performance while looking HOT, and don't expect a big budget.

Far Better Than The Ripoff Some Make This Out to Be

[gavin6942 · 7/10 · 7 October 2008]

Tonya (Ailsa Marshall) is dumped naked into a room with thirteen strangers. She is player fourteen in a sadistic game where only the survivors win. With each player given clues and tools to survive, who will be left? And who is behind this? Not everyone tells the truth, so can the players trust each other to keep themselves civil? You're going to see review after review comparing this film to "Saw", and some comparing it to "Battle Royale"... still others referencing lesser known films. And, it's true, there's a "Saw" vibe here and a "Battle Royale" vibe... but don't let that dissuade you. There is nothing new about survival horror and it won't go away any time soon. And, if done correctly, that's not a bad thing.

I've also seen certain comments concerning the low budget and overabundance of white light. I don't deny these aspects, but in complete honesty they didn't bother me one bit. As long as your film has an interesting story -- and this one does -- and isn't a complete shambles, you have me hook, line and sinker. My only issue with this film was that I had a very strong suspicion of the ending from the very beginning. I was even more convinced after a big clue was dropped in the interview scene.

Fans of "Saw" will like this, as will people who like puzzles, so long as they keep an open mind and don't judge it strictly on its low budget and similarities to other films. I was thoroughly engaged by the interesting characters, destruction of film stereotypes, and ultimately the very clever writing inherent in the picture. Allegedly this film was thrown together roughly overnight, but it doesn't show.

C grade horror movie

[burgif · 1/10 · 13 July 2008]

Usually I don't mind remakes or even plagirism (when it comes to movie ideas)but I do mind very poor scripts, bad audio and talentless actors. As others have noticed that the makers of this movie were trying to copy SAW 1 and failed miserably, they failed to deliver the intensity of SAW, the convincing performance of the actors and above all failed to deliver the coherent story line of SAW. I lost real interest in this movie from the first scene where every one of the (victims) were in some place and all of them don't look agitiated by the fact they don't know how they end up there, The audio was awful, the actors failed to deliver acceptable performance. To sum it all, this movie was a waste of time.

Take my advice

[pedrm · 3/10 · 19 November 2008]

OK this movie totally sucked. Horrible horrible script! If you like these kind of suspense movies go watch one the "Saw" movies, and if you've already seen them, you're gonna find this movie completely stupid and a waste of time. They basically tried to copy Saw, but they totally failed. The movie has no context, the ending sucks, and the only reason I finished watching it, is that I thought that the hot chick and the dude were gonna do it, but they never did!!! Just bad idea, bad presentation, and the writers were just plain stupid, they could not deliver... I don't have anything more to say, but apparently I have to write 10 lines in order for my comment to be posted so that's why I'm still talking... lol

absolutely terrible

[teonanacatl · 1/10 · 3 July 2008]

this movie is saw and cube with no budget and no brains. you can tell absolutely no money was put into this film by the 2$ hose clamps that they all wear as "electrical collars". that should be a pretty clear sign that they really don't give a care in the world about how their movie looks. which is further reinforced by the lighting. tip to the film makers: 50 tube fluorescent lights will absolutely destroy every shot you take unless you have expensive post production tools, and they don't sell them at the hardware store where you bought the collars. the acting is C grade, plot is completely stolen, the twist at the end is more like a faceplant into a grave, and the whole atmosphere reeks of i want everyone to die immediately. seriously, you will not care about any of the characters whatsoever and just hope that they have a gory death asap.

i could not say more bad things about this film, except maybe that i hope the producers and director quit forever after this. as well as all the actors, especially the old women. there's nothing that destroys a horror film more then screeching old women with more wrinkles in their face and fat flapping off their neck then there are molecules in the universe.

do not watch.

I expected more, it delivered less.

[brett_kyle74 · 4/10 · 10 August 2014]

While this movie wasn't truly as abysmal as many reviewers have previously stated, it wasn't really a great movie. The overall plot had serious potential, but could have used a bit more development. It was just seriously lacking in some places. I won't even comment about "Saw" or "Cube" rips offs like so many have done. Movies take ideas from other movies every day. How many times has the doomsday scenario been done? Some did it well, some did not.

If you go into this movie with the mindset that it's going to be somewhere along the same lines as "Saw", "Cube", and all the other movies that use this premise, you'll be one step ahead. You must also realize that it isn't going to deliver as well as those movies. The premise is fairly vague and the ending doesn't offer much in the way of closure or even comprehension of what just transpired.

The acting was actually quite good, with minimal exceptions. After seeing it, you'll be able to draw your own conclusions as to whom those exceptions might be.

I wouldn't say run out and rent this movie ASAP, but if you have a chance to watch it (and don't have much else better to do), it should offer a little bit of entertainment.It is your choice.

There is a Exit....don't turn it on ,-)

[mr-rob-c · 3/10 · 11 February 2015]

cheap, cheaper, no exit... sorry, but total waste of time, just at the beginning i was thinking to turn it off, but because of some good reviews and the prices the film get i think, give it a chance....FAIL actors are bad, effects are bad, everything in this film is bad. a good idea which in this case are not new, don't make a good film. a poor image is always not a good sign for a film BUT it don't have always to be that way, sometimes a great idea and good actors and a good producer can make a great film with not much putting in it, but this is not such case....terrible film.

switch it, better for you

greetings from cologne, Germany

Why, French Fry?

[bemyfriend-40184 · 1/10 · 30 December 2020]

So... why? Yeah, legitimate question, really. Why did the villains do this? And how? How did that French fry of a starlet manage to kill those people? Cartoon villains, cartoon deaths. This film is an imitation of The Cube, Immortal Wars, Kill Em' All, Battle Royale, Hunger Games, etc., etc., Some "User" wrote that we who note that, "need to chill". Chili Fries.

This film gives is a small picture of the real world we live in.

[tohid-d · 6/10 · 21 November 2008]

I did't understand what this movie was meant to be. I think it shows a small picture of the world we live in: The whole life is a game of survival; you come to this world naked and and you don't know anyone at first. You will die if you ever dare to break the rules. In a world of survival, you cannot trust anyone. You will die even if you are given the chance to see other worlds, and if you do see other worlds you will understand that the game "is not as it looks". If you want to reveal what you know about this game, you will be eliminated. The killer is representative of "The Ripper", sent to harvest souls. People don't know about their fate. They don't know which one is next.

no nudity

[ailsazzz · 4/10 · 24 August 2009]

First of all, and most importantly, there is no nudity in this movie. I don't know why they say "thrown naked" Maybe the producers are attempting to gain an audience for a low budget film, by saying that the girl on the cover is naked, that is misleading. The acting is fine, some better than others. The leads are pretty decent, which makes me wonder why they did this. Its The kind of movie actors & directors would do, for experience, and some extra cash. definitely wouldn't recommend it, but with a bigger budget, and more time spent on it, it would be more watchable. Probably was written, and shot over a long weekend, jumping on the bandwagon of so many other horror movies. Some moments are watchable, but again, not enough time is spent on character development, and you can tell that it was rushed, and thrown together.

It's a Cube clone but still good

[PsychoKlown · 9/10 · 26 April 2009]

this was in my recommendations on amazon.co.uk & upon reading the synopsis it sounded like the cube trilogy & when i watched this movie i found that it is basically cube set in 1 big room minus the traps.

at the start a woman emerges in a room with 13 strangers who tell her they have all been selected to take place in a unique game where there can be only 1 winner...yes you guessed it, they have to kill each other to survive, although they don't all start attacking each other right away, the paranoia kicks in with everyone. This is made worse when their "host" informs them that there are 3 criminals among them a paedophile, a rapist & a murderer.

the films pace is slow but the characters interact as you would expect if you were in the situation & builds up to a great climax where the true reasons for the game are revealed & the films twist.

Some may hate this film but if you enjoyed the cube films you will probably like this too.

Boring

[MissLucifer666 · 3/10 · 21 June 2009]

I'm a huge Saw fan and don't think that a movie is only good if it has special effects for example The Shinnig (with jack Nicolshon). I had high expectations of this movie because I like such "game" movies, but it's just boring. I wouldn't say its a ripoff from Saw, because Saw has a certain meaning in the game he plays, in this movie you just don't know why they are killed, they just end up dead each on their turn...thats' basically it. For people who love movie where the actors end up dead, with no real story, it surely will be good, but for people who like Saw or 13th game of dead etc it'll be just boring...And the ending well...in my eyes it makes it worse. And please don't compare it with Saw!! It just don't look like it! For people who like game movie with not to much "violence" it's probably a good movie, but this movie just stain other good movies like...yes Saw or Cube or 13th game etc..Two words: meaningless and boring!

waste of time...

[sbarancicek · 2/10 · 30 June 2009]

Actually I got high expectations at first when I see the cover. But without any doubt, I can define this movie as a time waste. Especially if you had watched the saw series you will regret that you spend time on this. It has obviously a very similar script of saw, but the thing is that, it does not have a strong or sharp subject. Indeed even the climax was very "unsuprising". On the other hand at the end you think that the whole thing got an idea, I mean it must have some logic behind the events; but guess the guy who wrote this just wanna do some money by making films without any talent. Still it is unfortunate that he got that idea while watching Saw.. Wish the writer will come up with some original ideas...

Potato Cam bad - and poor for its type

[HorrorFilmHellion · 2/10 · 18 June 2022]

In a word, poor. The filming is so bad that I was getting a headache within the first 10 minutes.. Misfocusing, distorted lighting, shaky cam, zooms, over the shoulder bounce.. I mean, you name the flaw, and it's in here. On top of that, this is one of the worst of it's type that I have seen.. type being: bunch of people mysteriously in some place that they have to talk through and figure out how to escape.. or not. One might say The Cube genre. Anyway, good effort.. unfortunate result. Many better ones to burn time on.

Kidnapped prisoners get to die in a game imposed by sadists.

[suite92 · 1/10 · 1 September 2013]

The final surprise: watch to the end to get your greatest disappointment.

Cinematography: 4/10 Indifferent. Doubling the budget, and buying some reasonable video and lighting equipment would have been a good investment. Soft focus, camera jump, long dark and fuzzy intervals, stupid framing errors, and over exposures were some of the problems.

Sound: 2/10 Often hollow. The incidental music was irritating, but not evocative of fear or dread.

Acting: 3/10 Between bad and who cares.

Screenplay: 0/10 This is the worst part. Who needs motivation? Who needs explanations for physical events in a non-supernatural film? Apparently not these folks. Even if the actors had more skill and training, they would not have been able to overcome this obstacle.