Breeder

by Hope Madden

Alex Goyette has done something pretty fascinating with his new horror film, Breeder. He takes a somewhat familiar genre trope and, by inverting gender roles, creates an entirely different kind of horror.

An anxiety riddled, out of work geneticist facing 200k in student loan debt, Russell (Daniel Doheny) makes a desperate leap when a 20k check and an invitation to dinner arrives in the mail. It appears a dog breeder named Patti (Dot-Marie Jones, mesmerizing) has taken an interest in his research and wants to fund it. All he has to do is drive 5 hours out into the middle of nowhere to have dinner at her place.

Having seen a horror movie in her life, his girlfriend (Tanaya Beatty) is skeptical. Having seen a horror movie yourself, you know she’s right to be. Because Patti has moved on from breeding poodles, and she thinks Russell and his big brain make him the perfect stud.

Goyette’s clever script reconsiders a concept mined for lurid horror. The genre is lousy with tales of young women lured to isolated spots to become breeders. (Son of Sara is a recent, fine example.) Because the victim is a man in Goyette’s nightmare, everything shifts.

Breeder is incredibly uncomfortable, often darkly humorous, but the script is smart. The logical nature of science—animal science, in particular—informs character actions in ways that are both unsettling and authentic.

Doheny’s anxious, spineless good guy is spot on. You root for him almost as much as you want to smack him. All the performances are strong, but every scene in the film is elevated by Jones.

She uses a quiet, awkward menace, flashes of vulnerability, and sheer size to terrify. The performance is so true to the character, a dog breeder who manipulates situations to train her litter. But the manipulation never feels devious. Patti’s almost simple, so straightforward and logical is her thinking and behavior. The purity of this performance is masterful.

The film struggles in the third act, but nothing can take away from Jones’s work.