Review of Dying Breed (2008) by Scott D — 12 Apr 2009

I must first say that the cover of this film is very poor. I usually try not to judge a film by its cover but talk about misleading. Definitely no martinis present in this film. But besides that...

Considering how many good things that there could have been in "Dying Breed", I felt a little let down. The premise was a pretty solid one that could have led to some very suspenseful and gritty moments, but alas the film tends to have a pretty standard 'cannibalistic community from hell' feeling throughout. Lots of potential and very little solid execution.

I will say that I was impressed with some of the performances in "Dying Breed" though. Nathan Phillips as Jack had some great moments of douche bagness and although you come to hate him pretty earlier its his comeback moments that had me by the throat. The main guy and main girl also both had some great moments although compared to Phillips they seemed a bit flat by the end.

I wish that the film had a slightly better flow to it then it achieved. It starts off with some great character work but there is a mid section of when they first get into the forest on their own that just died for me. It seemed to drag on a bit longer then it should have and by the time the true Horror aspect of the film comes along I was kind of dead to subject.

I'll try not to give too much away but I also felt that the ending of the film rushed a lot of the loose ends together without a lot of logical thought. It pulls a "Lord Of The Rings" and ends like 6 different times after the climax of the film (which ended up being pretty lack luster for my tastes) and it made me numb to the subject.

"Dying Breed" had a lot of great things that could have happened throughout the story, but a fairly straight up directing job and some poor story flows hindered the cast from showing off their solid acting chops and letting the story unfold in a more natural pace. Still a good effort (especially for the Horrorfest catalog) but definitely far too cliche for a cannibal hick community film for it to reach new heights.