HOSTILE DIMENSIONS

4 stars

Blue Finch Film. Digital platforms. 26th August

HOSTILE DIMENSIONS is a low budget movie with big ideas to explore, diving into the multiverse, which seems to be the in thing these days.

Having created a documentary about a teddy bear manufacturer, which didn’t exactly set the world alight, Ash (Joma West) and Sam (Annabelle Logan) decide they need to do something which is more immediately commercial. They think they have found it after viewing a video of graffiti artist Emily (Josie Rogers) who enters an abandoned building and finds a mysterious free standing door – which she disappears through. After talking to Brian (Stephen Beavis), the cameraman who shot the footage, Sam has the door brought back to her flat – which might not be the best idea!

The duo approach academic Dr Innis (Paddy Kondracki) to help them explore what this odd installation might be and to see if they can track down Emily. The door is a portal into other universes – in one they see Sam’s mum still alive and in another they enter an empty, bizarre panda themed play area, which has a bear with tentacles in it and in yet another they see a world of pyramids and whales floating majestically through the sky.

But as things progress things start to inevitably take a darker turn. Written and directed by Graham Hughes – a filmmaker whose work I wasn’t aware of – this is a clever Twilight Zone style found footage science fiction horror with a nice streak of comedy. What it lacks in budgetary terms it makes up for in exploring big ideas. Whilst it doesn’t all entirely hang together or make narrative sense it packs it’s short running time with great surreal imagination leading to an ambitious chase sequence at the end.

Steve Kirkham