Hold Your Breath (2024) Dir: Will Joines & Karrie Crouse

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Co-directed by Will Joines and Karrie Crouse, this 2024 horror has been sitting on my Disney Plus watchlist, slowly collecting dust. I did finally muster up the urge to watch it though - I had been trying to find something fairly simple and recent to watch. My expectations were fairly nominal - the film has never generated any buzz particularly, and its reviews online are mediocre at best.

I found the cinematography frustrating, more than anything. A film with dust as a central factor was unlikely to look that impressive - we can't all produce 'Dune' or 'Lawrence Of Arabia' levels of shots for these sorts of films - but I really felt like this horror decided it wouldn't even try to look interesting. There were so many repetitive shots of quite literally just dust, either on a surface or in the wind. It was so lifeless to look at.

In fact, the whole film felt like watching dust settle; very slow and dull. Even for a ninety minute film, this felt extremely, painfully, long. The pacing issues were relentless, as was the mediocrity of the screenplay in general. It failed to provide either a compelling story or compelling characters to operate within it. The narrative lacked the execution needed to make this anything but a drab affair, and even the film's major twist was extremely predictable, yet somehow still awkward and jarring.

Sarah Paulson's star power was not enough to save this film. Indeed, she hardly put her best foot forward. I have seen far better performances from her, albeit the aforementioned writing issues would hamper the perception of anyone's performance. Amiah Miller had moments of adequacy, but was far more impacted by the issues mentioned above. In fact, just about everyone was.

Whilst not outright terrible, the likes of Miller, as well as other cast members like Annaleigh Ashford and Alona Jane Robbins, seemed unable to elevate themselves above the film's poor writing. Ebon Moss-Bachrach suffered too, with his antagonist feeling so bland that it was hard to watch him at times. Nobody turned in their best work here.

Overall, if I had to describe this film in one word, it would be boring. It just seem to sap the life out of me, with its subpar writing, half-hearted performances, and complete lack of substance. I couldn't wait for it to end. The vague concept of this film was not a bad one, but its execution was lazy and woeful. I don't imagine anyone would be holding their breath to see this one. It really doesn't warrant it.