Harder! No, that's too hard! - Breath of Hate (2010)

Hypothetically, if you were a prostitute desperate to go straight, do you think it would ever be a good idea to do one last job?  Chances are something awful and irreversible would happen like your mother would find out or you’d be hired for a quickie by your middle-aged boss.  Bad idea.  But that’s just what Love has gone ahead and done.  She has met a boy and he wants to take her away from all of this but her pimp wants to send her on another job, right in to the hands of a psychopath.   Breath of Hate has the illustrious setting of a 1970’s soft porn film and suggestion of an uncomfortable snuff movie all in one

A curious trio have made themselves at home in an empty mansion up in the hills; one mysterious, exciting and moody man who seems to hide some dark secrets, a domineering and lecherous lesbian and a deranged simple boy with an unhealthy sexual obsession with palaeontology, of all things.  To pass the time they hire three prostitutes for some entertainment but little do the girls know that these ‘clients’ are in fact escaped mental patients.  See, I told you it would be a bad idea.  Unwittingly they each pair off with their new partner and you can’t help but feel like you might never see them again.  And actually, the scenes are not played in sequence and so you are privy to the girl’s fate right from the start.  Our Love walks to the bedroom with the leader of the group and it just so happens that his name is Hate.  When he discovers her name he becomes convinced they were meant to be together and begins to show his frightening side and penchant for sadism.  Hate wants to change the world and needs Love to do it.  Meanwhile Love’s sappy boyfriend has started looking for her.

 

The only time Breath of Hate faltered wasn’t with the acting as such but more with the timing and the script.  At times it felt much like a poorly paced porn film and the romance, although very pleasant, did not belong here.  Ezra Buzzington as Hate is completely terrifying with his calculating affectation and sinister Southern drawl.  He is one of those men you always want to stay on the good side of - but even that good side could still get you in to a lot of trouble.  The prostitutes are actually a delight to watch.  They’re convincing, ditsy and satisfyingly slutty.  The pimp, his lackey and girlfriend provide the comic relief.  The humour in this film is not overdone and is instead desperately grabbed at as some very welcome escape from the desperation within that house.

A game is underway here and victim must rely on aggressor to see them through.  So the question must be, would you let yourself believe the philosophy of an insane man?  After all, knowledge is power, as they say.  But the perceived knowledge to a psychotic could surely have potentially explosive consequences.  Comeuppance is such a great theme for a horror film.  This superiority lets you enjoy the kind of violence that you should normally be deploring.  Breath of Hate is the story of the pursuit of the ultimate in satisfaction.  It’s about us striving to be the best no matter how evil your best may be and no matter what you have to do to get to the very end.