JP Nunez
I love multiverse stories. I just find the idea of alternate realities utterly fascinating, so films like Coherence, Deadpool & Wolverine, and From Beyond are right up my alley. I’m always down to watch a movie that explores this mind-boggling concept, so when I first heard about the found-footage film Hostile Dimensions, it immediately caught my attention. It promised to take viewers on a chilling adventure through a malevolent multiverse, and I couldn’t wait to see what fun new worlds it would uncover.
Hostile Dimensions was written and directed by Graham Hughes, and he also stars in the movie alongside Annabel Logan, Joma West, Josie Rogers, Paddy Kondracki, and Stephen Beavis. The story follows two filmmakers, Ash and Sam, who hear the bewildering tale of a missing woman named Emily. Apparently, Emily found a mysterious, free-standing door in an abandoned building, and after going through it, she was never heard from again.
Now our main characters want to make a documentary about the case and try to find the missing woman, but when they open the door themselves, they get a bit more than they bargained for. They discover that it’s actually a portal to alternate dimensions, and after they team up with a teacher named Innis, they go on a multiversal adventure unlike anything they ever could’ve imagined.
Like most found-footage films, this one stands or falls largely on the believability of its characters. These movies need to convince you that you’re watching real recordings made by real people, not a carefully scripted fictional story, and in that regard, Hostile Dimensions knocks it out of the park.
Granted, I wouldn’t quite call this cast Oscar-worthy, but they have an authenticity that more than makes up for the flaws in their performances. They manage to capture the flavor of real human interactions, so right from the get-go, you’ll have no trouble at all buying into these people and rooting for them.
On top of that, Hostile Dimensions also features one hell of a horror mystery. The film starts with Emily’s disappearance, and from the minute you learn about her story, you can’t help but wonder what kinds of terrifying alternate dimensions lie behind this door.
Then, when Sam and Ash get a hold of it, the movie gets even better. Once they realize that they’re dealing with a multiversal portal, they attach a camera to a remote-controlled toy car and send it through the door, and immediately after this thing crosses the threshold, writer/director Graham Hughes cranks the tension up to 11.
The door opens to a seemingly deserted children’s play area, and it seems pretty innocuous on the surface. But that’s exactly what makes it so terrifying. Because it’s an unexplored alternate reality, you have no idea what could be hiding around the next corner, and that uncertainty is absolutely bone-chilling.
From there, Hostile Dimensions grows weirder and weirder, and with every new discovery, the mystery behind this door and the worlds it conceals becomes more and more intriguing. Unfortunately though, the film can’t quite sustain this allure for its entire runtime. The story starts to slow down shortly after Innis comes into the picture, and to be frank, it eventually begins to drag a bit.
This guy has heard about doors like this one, so he’s able to answer a few of Sam and Ash’s questions about it. And as often happens, once you can understand something, it becomes less interesting. To be fair, this part of Hostile Dimensions still has its moments, like a scene where the characters enter a world with flying whales, but on the whole, the second act is a noticeable step down from the first.
Thankfully though, the movie eventually kicks it into gear once again, and it ends on a great note. The last 10-15 minutes or so go all in on the film’s bonkers premise, and we finally get the world-hopping adventure viewers are probably expecting.
What’s more, the final act of Hostile Dimensions also explains a bit about the door’s nature and history, but it does so in a way that brings back some of the mystique the movie lost in the second act. It introduces a cool Lovecraftian element that I enjoyed immensely, and if you’re a fan of this kind of horror, I think you’ll like it too.
Last but not least, I want to talk about the themes of Hostile Dimensions. The film doesn’t beat you over the head with its message, but by the end, a clear point does emerge. Sam recently lost her mother, so at one point in the movie, she’s tempted to travel the multiverse in search of a world where her mother is still alive.
I’m not going to tell you what she ends up doing, but suffice it to say that the film uses Sam’s grief to present its characters with a choice. They can leave their universe behind and look for a better one, or they can stay in their own world and try to improve it, and the way I see it, that’s an allegory for a choice we face every day of our lives. While we obviously can’t run away to an alternate dimension, we have to decide whether we’re going to make our world a better place or turn our backs on the suffering we see around us.
In case you couldn’t tell, I had a really good time with this movie. Sure, it’s not perfect, but on the whole, the good here far outweighs the bad. Hostile Dimensions is a fun multiversal adventure with likable characters, a great horror mystery, and a really cool Lovecraftian dimension (pun intended!), so if you’re looking for some good new horror to watch, I definitely recommend that you check this film out.
Hostile Dimensions is set to hit theaters and VOD on August 23.
