Dir. Graham Hughes (2023)
Two filmmakers explore alternate dimensions to try to find the truth about a missing graffiti artist.
It's exceptionally difficult to make a film about multiple universes without succumbing to becoming a tangled mess of nonsense. Even Disney, with all of their trillions of dollars and A-list actors has struggled at times to make sense of a pre-written series about superheroes from multiple universes. What it really takes, however, is creativity and a willingness to bend the rules, a vision outside of your typical "a+b=c" linear plot timeline. Director Graham Hughes, who previously helmed the film Death of a Vlogger that was built inside the same universe as this one, brings us a really interesting found footage take on "wolf doors," essentially portals to parallel universes from our own.
Documentary filmmakers Sam (Annabel Logan) and Ash (Joma West) are looking to recover from their most recent commercial letdown. After running across an internet video that seems to show a woman disappear inside of a door in an abandoned building, the pair take the door for themselves and stash it inside their flat. Turns out, it really does lead to alternate dimensions, and with the help of lecturer Innis (Paddy Kondracki), they seek to find the missing woman and perhaps even find a better world than our own.
Hostile Dimension is super creepy, exceptionally inventive, and contains just enough dark humor and emotional pull to give the film a surprising depth for an surface-level found footage sci-fi horror film. It's also incredibly well-made, and it's difficult to believe that this is an indie film at all if you don't consider the relatively low-quality video footage. Even that doesn't take you too much out of things, as it works perfectly for found footage in general and indie found footage even moreso.
The film does struggle at times to avoid becoming convoluted, by very nature of its subject matter, but it does a great job of tying all of those strings together and creating something that's an outstanding effort in an underrated genre. Hughes intends this film to be the second in a trilogy, a series of films that he has titled The 3/1 Trilogy. This film was interesting enough that it made me seek out and watch Death of a Vlogger as well, because Hughes has an incredible talent for storytelling that is sorely lacking from a lot of lower-budget indie filmmakers. While this one does have some issues with budget, most noticeably with its strange and 1-dimensional villains lurking behind the doors, it manages to accomplish so much with its budget in regards to locations and effects that it's entirely forgivable when it lacks.
Rogers and Logan are great as the catalysts for the film, two women trying their best to recover from failures both professional and personal. Sam is trying hard to create a perfect world, a desire built from pain and loss, and these portals provide her an opportunity to look for one. This emotional subplot works surprisingly well in the film, and I didn't really see it coming on the outset. There's enough to love here even from a filmic perspective that I'm hoping this one finds a wider audience. From a horror perspective, it is legitimately creepy, and while it's not outright scary for the most part, it's about as effective as any recent found footage flick that I've seen. That's hard to pull of in and of itself. Throw in some parallel dimensions, and Hughes has accomplished the near impossible.
Who this movie is for: Found footage horror fans, Parallel universe film lovers, Talking dog owners
Bottom line: Hostile Dimensions is an incredibly intriguing film that was done about as well as it possibly could have been. It's not the film to convert you into a found footage fan, but if you love the genre as much as I do, chances are you're going to really enjoy this one. Director Graham Hughes has put together a really interesting film with a lot to say, and while it does at times struggle to say all of it, it's a tale worth telling and certainly one worth watching. It's coming to VOD 8/23, and I highly recommend checking out this mindfuck of a movie.
