HOSTILE DIMENSIONS - Mark Reviews Movies

Hostile Dimensions, Dark Sky Films

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Review by Mark Dujsik | August 22, 2024

A mysterious free-standing door appears, seemingly out of nowhere, in an abandoned warehouse in the opening scene of Hostile Dimensions. Writer/director Graham Hughes presents that sequence in the style of a piece of found footage, as a couple of graffiti artists go looking for some prime real estate for their work and end up, well, having a completely different experience.

The conceit of found-footage horror, of course, has become clichéd and looked down upon since its heyday, when filmmakers and studios realized the gimmick could reduce budgets (In addition to less-expensive technical setups, the illusion also depends on casting unknown actors) and, thus, have a better chance of paying off at the box office. Hughes' movie, though, is in the spirit of the subgenre's forebears, in that it is a low-budget affair in which the gimmick is an essential part of what the filmmaker is trying to accomplish.

In this case, the tone of the material is the key, as that opening scene of straightforward stuff—wandering around a creepy place, encountering a couple of jump-scares, discovering that something supernatural is operating behind the scenes—transforms into a more comical approach. A good number of people in the real world who might watch the video of the graffiti artists online, after all, would assume the footage is some kind of prank, achieved by the same kind of trickery that horror movies like it have been using for decades.

The joke here, then, is that a couple of documentary filmmakers, producer Sam (Annabel Logan) and director Ash (Joma West), do watch the footage and, despite their skepticism as to its authenticity, think it might be a worthwhile subject for their next project. The last one, about some niche shop facing financial woes, didn't do well, after all, and a mystery, with some true-crime implications—because the woman in front of the camera has genuinely gone missing—and some supposed supernatural elements to it, surely would be more marketable. It's a subtle but pointed jab at audiences, filmmakers, and the movie itself, really, ensuring that we probably shouldn't take any of this too seriously.

The actual plot guarantees that won't, either. It has Sam obtaining the door somehow and putting it in her apartment. The two filmmakers examine it—making sure to film everything, obviously—and finally work up the courage to actually open the door. It just looks like a mirror inside, which offers them some relief—until a third person impossibly appears in the apparent reflection. It's impossible because there's no one else in the apartment but the two women—not to mention that the third woman is Sam's mother, who died about a year prior.

What's happening here? The answer is complicated, given the simplicity of a single door, but should be overly familiar to anyone who has watched any kind of science-fiction in the past five years or so. It's a portal to alternate dimensions within the multiverse, as explained in rather explicit and unnecessary detail by a professor named Innis (Paddy Kondracki), who has heard rumors and seen questionable videos online about such phenomena. He's happy to become the filmmakers' in-house expert.

Some of the results are admittedly amusing and decidedly strange, such as when Sam and Ash go through the door and wind up in what looks like a harmless children's play area. Some signs even promise "free hugs" in assorted languages, although the thing offering those hugs isn't as cute and cuddly as it initially appears. Hughes even stretches the apparent limitations of his budget with a visit to one alternative universe, where the trio of researchers see things flying through the air that definitely shouldn't be.

It's not so much the limitations of what Hughes can pull off in showing us assorted worlds and dimensions that's the issue, though. The director uses clever edits, practical effects, and even some digital ones to fine effect, while also playing with real locations to create an eerie aura. There's the indoor playground, of course, but some scenes in an old, dark church are punctuated by the revelation that the place is populated by shadowy figures with glowing red eyes.

No, the real limitation here is the screenplay's turn toward solving the mystery of the missing woman, the riddle of the door, and what the person behind all of this actually wants. Despite the endless possibilities of the premise, the whole of the plot comes down to a twist involving one of the side players, the discovery of even more exposition in a seemingly empty apartment, and a chase through assorted universes. In that sequence, we do get a sense of some limits of imagination, such as how two different dimensions involve giants but, more broadly, in how few worlds there actually are during the course of the chase.

One has to admire how much Hughes manages to pull off in taking on such an ambitious idea within the restrictions of such a small movie. Hostile Dimensions, though, ultimately does feel small—not because of the technical side of things, but on account of how little the story does with this premise of infinite possibilities.

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