Breeder (2020)

Directed by: Jens Dahl | 107 minutes | horror, thriller | Actors: Sara Hjort Ditlevsen, Anders Heinrichsen, Morten Holst, Signe Egholm Olsen, Eeva Putro, Jens Andersen, David Bateson, Bengt CW Carlsson, Eja Rhea Mathea Due, Elvira Friis, Peter Khouri, Oksana Kniazeva, Sara Wilgaard Sinkjær, Anne Sofie

‘Breeder’ by the Danish director Jens Dahl is a gloomy work. The story revolves around a ruthless businesswoman, originally a veterinarian, who wants to ‘intervene’ in evolution. She wants to reverse the aging process in humans through a biohack. For this purpose, young women are kidnapped, to whom experiments are applied.

The ruthless doctor, Isabel Ruben (Signe Egholm Olsen), has Thomas Lindberg (Anders Heinrichsen) as a financial advisor for her unsavory business. When he occasionally comments on the pace at which developments are taking place, Ruben threatens to blackmail him with a secret from his near past. The team also consists of two sadistic ‘tough guys’, called the dog and the boar, who do the dirty jobs for Ruben (abduction of the women, torture).

After a distress call from a neighboring babysitter, Thomas’s girlfriend, horse rider Mia (Sara Hjort Ditlevsen from ‘Borgman’), learns the location of the gruesome DNA-altering factory. Once there, she too is made a victim of the experiments. She ends up in a cellar, captivated and ignorant of what awaits her. It soon becomes apparent that she is not the only victim. Does she – with the other imprisoned women – manage to escape in time or have her last hours reached her?

Let’s ignore the fact that ‘Breeder’ seems to serve as a backdrop for the torture scenes to a large extent. That’s not the only thing that rattles in this horror/thriller. The acting doesn’t last, but that’s due to the limited script. The plot shows a lot of holes and here too the following applies: why are women always portrayed so stupid and powerless in these kinds of films?

Well, there’s a lot to like about the characters. The doctor and her cronies play very one-dimensional and the character Thomas also does not want to come to life. Flat and not interesting at all. Only Mia’s acting performance gets a small round of applause, but she also doesn’t know how to raise ‘Breeder’ to a satisfactory level. The first 30 minutes of the film are hopeful, then the film collapses like a plum pudding. So it’s quite an achievement to sit out this bumbling. Do you like ‘gore’ (bloodshed, splash-style), in other words the better torture work? Then this brood could be for you. If not, stay away and don’t let your “fuck”….