There’s more than meets the eye in Breeder, the feature directorial debut of Alex Goyette, about an odd dog breeder who makes an unusual request of a young scientist she begins funding.
Shocking no one: there’s something else going on when struggling researcher Russell (Daniel Doheny) randomly begins receiving financial support from Patti (Dot-Marie Jones), an award-winning poodle breeder. The older woman takes an unexpected, out of the blue interest in Russell’s work on bees – to the tune of thousands of dollars – despite his inability to pitch his work to multiple other investors. As a thank you to his newfound benefactor, Russell accepts her dinner invitation, whereupon he meets Patti’s five adopted daughters, and learns that there’s an ulterior motive behind her generosity.
Thankfully Goyette, who also writes and edits the film, doesn’t tease out the mystery for longer than is necessary. Horror fans will have no difficult figuring out that Patti is untrustworthy and dangerous, so it’s for the best that her unorthodox request – which involves eugenics and her second oldest daughter Ainsley (Maddie Phillips) – occurs within the first act.
Obviously Russell is taken aback by the request, in no small part because he already has a girlfriend, Hailey (Tanaya Beatty). Importantly though, before Russell travels to visit Patti, it’s clear that there is some existing friction between him and Hailey (she has been covertly looking into adoption without his input; her mother is prone to interrogating Russell about his job prospects).
Despite this, Russell isn’t prepared to get down to pound town with Ainsley, who also has her own mysterious agenda.
Breeder has two significant and intertwined issues. Despite pivoting from the question “what is going on?” to “how will Russell react?” early on, the film has difficulty 1) establishing its stakes, and 2) maintaining its momentum. It’s clear that Patti is delusional and untrustworthy, and Breeder gets plenty of mileage out of the discomfort that results from her unpredictable mood swings. The film works best when it a dark comedy of manners a la Speak No Evil: if Russell would simply recuse himself from the situation, he wouldn’t get caught up in increasingly bizarre and dangerous events.
But he’s on the hook for the money, so the young man keeps accepting excuses to stick around a little longer.
At a certain point, though, it becomes clear that Patti isn’t messing around. Unfortunately Doheny* and Marie Jones don’t modulate their performances enough, particularly in the back half of the film when things really start going to shit. As the film’s timeline escalates and the days tick by, Breeder loses steam, falling into a repetitive rhythm without offering enough variety: Patti is always crazy and Russell is always (too casually) perplexed. Only Phillips’ Maddie offers something intriguingly different because it is never clear if Maddie is playing Russell and supports her mother’s plans or if she’s being truthful about escaping from the restrictive, isolated farm.
*One element worth noting is the film’s repeated use of male nudity. It’s not titillating, but Doheny does appear naked multiple times. Breeder uses his penis as a visual reinforcement of how little power Russell has in the overwhelmingly matriarchal environment and it is both discomforting and effective.
The philosophical and moral implications of Breeder are ultimately more fascinating than the film itself, despite a few unexpected moments and developments that go for the jugular. The movie is, however, highly watchable from a production stand point: despite staying on Patti’s farm for the most part, Goyette and cinematographer Jaryl Lim find plenty of creative angles and shots to maintain interest and the dim lighting creates a particularly effective shadowy mise-en-scene. Hannah Parott‘s score is also a stand-out for generating an air of doom.
Ultimately Breeder is a little too long and simple for what it is. Despite a few stand out sequences and a mysterious turn by The Boys‘ Phillips, the movie overstays its welcome and the take-away message is genuinely bewildering. Fans of cringe, manner-based horror will likely find this the most successful. For everyone else, this is a firm “maybe” if you’re interested. 2.5/5
Breeder is in limited theatrical release Oct 28
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