User reviews

My 5 Reasons 2 Skip It

1. It is a bad rip off of Fallen (1998) - See It instead - Link below - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0119099/

2. Terrible acting - The cast is terrible and the acting at times is obvious and painful.

3. Terrible special effects/editing - No excuse for how bad it is. The spirit leaving the bodies is hysterical

4. I watched it in Chill Network - I have yet to see a solid movie on this network. Not to say I expected this movie to be solid.

5. It is made by Asylum - Enough said

Recommend for:

1. Katrina Bowden fans - she is one attractive specimen, but I can't say much for her performance in this film.

2. Nudity fans - there is some modest nudity in the film, but Katrina Bowden isn't part of it.

3. People who love cheesy movies - it definitely fits the bill

Email me your thoughts - why2seeit@gmail.com

The Asylum have made some tolerable movies, but a vast majority of their work, especially those from the disaster movie genre, is terrible. Hold Your Breath is far from their worst and is redeemable, but at the same time it is generally a poor movie. It does have a pretty effective opening sequence, a couple of inventive deaths, the beautiful Katrina Bowden giving a quite intense performance, Steve Hanks stealing every scene he's in and the hilarious line "You look as confused as a baby in a titty bar!". For me though, that's all there is to Hold Your Breath. The rest of the actors don't distinguish themselves and come across as bland and awkward. Actually Seth Cassell isn't so bad, he does have some acting talent but it is a talent that is not used very well at all in the movie because like all the actors he has little to work with. The actors do struggle with very cookie-cutter and severely underdeveloped characters and also a clunky script- that throws things in and leaves them unexplained often. McBride has the best lines easily, though I was never sure whether they were supposed to be taken seriously or for comedy. Excusing that the story is very derivative, with an idea that has been done to death already, the telling of it is very by-the-numbers, even some of the inventive deaths are not enough to disguise lazy exposition, really bad pedestrian pacing(especially after the prologue until McBride is introduced) or a distractingly goofy final act(like I was watching a different movie all of a sudden). The villain is not very memorable or menacing either. The direction and editing are amateurish at best, and the music doesn't gel with the atmosphere, some of the songs even sounded like bad, forgettable knock-offs of Evanescence. All in all, a poor movie but the Asylum has done worse than this. 4/10 Bethany Cox

Instead of Hold Your Breath it should have been titled Close Your Eyes...yes folks, it was *that* bad. Some of the lines of dialog were absolutely hilarious though I am quite sure they weren't meant to be. I'll never see bobcats or sandpaper in the quite the same way again.

The actors attempts at actually acting were quite painful to watch and it would appear that most of them all used the same dentist as a majority of them had teeth that closely resembled chiclets.

The entire premise of this ridiculous film was flawed from the beginning but I won't try and explain why this movie was so awful and in so many ways as I am currently trying to erase it from my memory and forget that I ever watched it. Avoid this one at all costs.

I understand movies are supposed to be fantasy and what not, but people can't be this stupid. Even if you are curious enough to check out the abandoned building, thoughts of sex usually don't pop into your head. And who willingly sits in an electric chair? And you see the power surging so you tighten the electric chair head strap on your friend instead of taking it off? Not to mention giving up your phones into 1 location instead of just turning them off for the weekend? And let's not talk about the jank ending. You couldn't kill these kids off fast enough. Normally I'd complain about the lack of minorities in the film, but I can see why other races would not be bothered with this crew of plastic surgery nightmares

No spoilers here, just basics.

The acting was fair to OK. The story/script was fair/OK (interesting, but maybe a little to detailed and over-thought, which COULD be OK or great).

But the direction and production of this just blew any "watchability" elements apart. What was reoccurring themes got lost in the convoluted mishmash of the director over emphasizing things that didn't matter, and letting things that do matter just slip right past. Then throwing in totally unneeded special effects that added nothing, and actually detracted from the ability to get into the story. On and on and on, ever 10 minutes part of me went "ok, I get why the actor played it that way, but why did they shoot the scene like that, and edit it that way, it might has well of been a live play on stage..."

If you can see past the horrible production of this movie, there is some decent acting and an interesting story underneath. But, to be honest, it's SO difficult to see because of the horrible production, I couldn't recommend ANYONE try to watch this movie (unless you are only doing so to get horror movie story ideas and see if the actors in it are any good).

This movie is the stupidest movie I have ever watched... Waste of 2 hours of my life...Serious waste of money... If you have any mind... do not watch this movie... Awful Awful AWFUL... I hated every minute of it... the effects sucked and it was just stupid... They made up scenes that NEVER FRICKING happened... I watched the whole thing to see if it got any better but it didn't... it sucked... the whole movie sucked... I would never tell anyone to watch this movie ever... the preview looked good but the movie was horrible... it was just straight horrible... I am so mad that I watched this movie... I don't know who would ever come up with a movie so stupid... I am so disappointed... I seriously thought this movie was going to be good but it wasn't... it was dumb... Even though this movie was so dumb I will still always hold my breath going past or through a cemetery and I will never use an egg beater ever again....

I keep accidentally watching movies made by The Asylum. It's a problem.

I'm as confounded by the notion of the "urban myth" in the premise as I am by the fact that it was used as the premise for a movie; the scene in which it's spouted out as exposition is outrageously gauche. The opening scene is actually entirely unnecessary. The music we're treated to in the soundtrack as soon as the film jumps to the "present day" (presumably 2012) sounds about 20 years out of date, and is otherwise tiresome. The characters immediately come across as mostly obnoxious and unlikable, and the dialogue is altogether rotten. The scene writing and execution thereof is heavy-handed and downright crude, not least least as additional scenes beyond the opening are altogether superfluous (such as a sex scene), and the pace drags interminably. Chris Ridenhour's original music could scarcely be more bland, and the special effects are just about as bald-faced and unconvincing as they could be.

I didn't have especially high expectations for 'Hold your breath' in the first place; the realization all too late of who produced this set off alarm bells. It is, however, even worse than I could have anticipated. I'm not particularly familiar with the cast; so far as I'm aware Katrina Bowden is the only player I've seen before, and if nothing else she was one of the few bright spots of largely awful 2013 horror-thriller 'Nurse.' I generously assume that given the opportunity to earnestly demonstrate their skills in another picture the ensemble would prove their worth. To judge them based on this alone, however, one would never know, for there's not the slightest trace of nuance in any of the acting. In fairness it might really not be their fault, because Geoff Meed's screenplay and Jared Cohn's direction are both just as tawdry - blunt, juvenile, boring, unbelievable, and not engaging in the least. The idea lying at the foundation of the movie could have feasibly served as impetus for a suitable if unremarkable supernatural horror flick were any meaningful care taken, but the picture moves along so lackadaisically that even if the content were worthwhile, the value would be all but lost as the digital timer limps along. And to that point: more than anything the "horror" element in 'Hold your breath' is merely low-grade torture porn, like 'Hostel' but with far less craftsmanship.

The possible fun of seeing actors portray two different characters upon possession is crushed by the confoundedly forthright acting in any instance. The possible fun of tension, suspense, and atmosphere is ruined by unnecessary dialogue and lousy direction at all points. Every now and again while watching I think maybe it's not the absolute bottom of the barrel after all, maybe there's some infinitesimal joy to be found here - only to in the next moment have my worst fears confirmed again. What seems to have happened here is that The Asylum greenlit a feature based on the worst possible root concept, then approved a screenplay that was the worst possible treatment of that concept. I'm well aware that the production company is known for churning out such schlock, yet I'm as surprised as anyone that every now and again they release something that's not half bad - so when one stumbles onto another trash pile like this, one can nevertheless be baffled that the studio apparently has no shame. I feel bad for the cast and hope they have been able to move on from this in the time since. I cannot overstate: by whatever means one finds this film, whatever reason you think you might have to watch it, 'Hold your breath' is not worthwhile.

After acting strangely during a weekend getting together, a group of friends learn they've invoked an urban legend by allowing a deceased serial killer to possess them on the anniversary of his death and must find a way of stopping their friends before they're killed.

This was a pretty enjoyable effort with a lot to really like about it. There's some pretty clever ideas at play in here, mainly in the way it goes about tying in the urban legend for possession and how it works in the future, as well as the way in which they're forced to bring the past into the whole equation and how they're going to deal with the spirit. The scenes in the abandoned prison are a lot of fun with plenty of suspenseful moments with it's creepy atmosphere, and the action sequence with the oncoming storm makes for a rather tense moment, as does the chase through the cemetery at night and the final confrontation in the woods which has a lot to like about it. Coupled with it's high gore quotient and graphic kills, there's a lot to like here and manages to overcome it's few flaws, namely in the fact that there's not a great deal of intelligence among the group here which constantly puts them in danger for no reason than to keep the scene going, failing to recognize what's going on around or just plain refusing to go along with how to save themselves after being told what to do in avoid that, and it grows tiresome after a while. As well, it's pretty much all inference as to what's going on, since this doesn't reveal anything straight-out and gets a little confusing as to what's going on. Otherwise, this is a pretty enjoyable effort.

Rated R: Graphic Language, Graphic Violence, Nudity and drug use.

This movie, like a number of horrors of its kind, are better when you're younger. Once you get older and realize you bought the movie a few years ago and decide to re-watch it, you be like why did I buy this. With that said, it's something about corny horror movies that I like and this one is no different. When that police car blew up though, I was rolling, the effects were so bad. Acting could have been better and some of the dialogue needed to be revised. I'm not gonna say don't watch it or you should, but it is a little entertaining and probably is something for the horror collection.

Guy has tree trunk shoved through eye and brain.... "You OK Son? ... Hang in there"... I think that sums this movie up completely.

There is an old wives' tale that you should hold your breath when passing by a cemetery lest an evil spirit rejected by both heaven and hell gets inside of you when you inhale.

Someone in a carload of college kids on holiday doesn't hold his/her breath when driving by a graveyard. This allows the spirit of an executed serial killer to get inside him/her to begin a spree of body- jumping carnage.

Oy horrible.

I never heard this tale before. And I hope I don't again. The film starts off horribly unbelievably. Then it cuts to present time but the film is horrible.

I had no idea what I was getting myself into here, except that when I saw that dreaded The Asylum logo pop up on the screen all hopes of being in for something great sort of vanishes like dew before the first rays of the sun.

Yeah, it is no secret that The Asylum is well-known for the more than questionable movies and mockbusters of dubious entertainment value. But still, I decided to give "Hold Your Breath" a chance, on the odd chance that it would actually be among the rare few movies that The Asylum spew forth that actually turn out to be worthwhile watching.

Right, well "Hold Your Breath" wasn't a particularly outstanding movie. Well, in all honesty, then it should be said that the movie started out fair enough and definitely had potential and had some good enough moments that lead me back to the good old days of the traditional 1990s horror movies. But they were just far in between and were drowning in a less than mediocre execution.

What worked the best in favor of the movie was the fact that they had both Keith Allan and Katrina Bowden on the cast list. Just a shame that Keith Allen was a mere supportive actor in the movie and had very little on-screen time. But Katrina Bowden definitely carried the movie quite well with her performance.

As for being a horror movie, then "Hold Your Breath" was not innovative, nor was it particularly outstanding or memorable. Which ultimately was a major part of why this movie is the type of movie that you will watch once - if you even manage to sit through it that long - and never to be seen again.

The ending of the movie, however, that is where it all fell into a heaping pile of rubbish. That was definitely one of the worst twist to a movie and one of the worst things happening towards an ending of a movie that I have witnessed in a long, long time. It was so bad that I was actually laughing hard when I saw that on the screen. Actually, the abysmal thing happening at the end of the movie actually makes it worthwhile sitting through the movie, just keep looking forward to having that one ridiculous moment at the end to strive to get to.

All in all, "Hold Your Breath" was not a very entertaining movie. Even for a movie from The Asylum, then this was pretty disappointing.

Did anyone else watch this just to hear Fire and Brimstone performed by Jaymie Valentine?? Lmao... Movie was bad, as was the acting... That song was the only good thing about it... Loved her version of it!

That being said,I wasn't expecting much from it and it was entertaining enough for the time while I was in the mood for something like this lol... These types of movies are almost a tradition in our family around Halloween time. The more campy the better lol.

Dang these reviews make it hard to declare a balanced rating. Poor acting? Yes. Trope filled plot? Yes. Dumb script? Yes. But was it entertaining? Heckens yes. Non stop amusement and energy, which is what I want out of an Asylum film. I haven't watched all of them, but I've seen boring ones like Titanic II and pushy, over the top stupid ones like Sharknado 3; Hold Your Breath hits at about 75% Sharknado 3. IMO, perfect B movie status. There's a 10 minute exposition dump at around the 50 minute mark, but building up to that there is "ominous revenge of the dead killer", "stoned/sexy forgettable teens start a road trip", "sit in the electric chair" "blow me" "maybe" "okay strap me in", a slaughter scene that I thought was actually pretty rememberable amidst the cgi eyeball gouging, and a fantastic body swapping/ghost wrestling finale. I can sense that the movie is missing something to make it legendary and unforgettable, but if you like slock, this is definitely recommendable.

I never thought that I was going to say this ever, this is a flick from the asylum that I liked. To be honest, it's my age that made it watchable. You don't get it? Well, I grew up with all those old eighties and seventies horrors and have seen the cheapies this surely reminded me of the copycats out there still unavailable or know to be cheesy.

If you watch the Blu Ray cover then you should already know that this isn't going to be a horror that stand up to today's standards. It just looked like those Italian covers back then. And it even reminded me of Shocker (1989)

For an Asylum flick it contained rather good effects although some were a bit laughable like the police car catching fire or a girl being ripped in two. Nevertheless, it even contained nudity a few times and a sexy scene were one of the girls actually goes naked but not full frontal. The cheesiness lays in the fact that the possessed ones have red glowing eyes and the good ones blue glowing eyes. The ghosts towards the end are pure CGI and of course the CGI used throughout this flick is one of the cheapest kind.

Newbies in the genre will hate this flick, and it shows but old school B flick lovers or cheesy horror geeks should pick this up. I enjoyed it.

Gore 1,5/5 Nudity 1/5 Effects 2/5 Story 2/5 Comedy 0/5

I don't think this movie get's enough credit. It is not a movie you pay over 5 dollars to watch, but it's worth the watch. It's not a horror movie that is going to scare your hands over your mouth, but it's an OK movie to watch if you've seen everything else.

It is a along the lines of a teenage flick, like Fear Island or Final Destination (not the plots, but the direction). It's kind of following the plot of the movie Fallen somewhat. It's not a typical storyline, it's a not the same old horror movie we're seeing now a days at least. One also needs to keep in mind that it is a low budget film, with low-budget actors, low-budget everything; so it isn't gonna win any Oscar's or anything.

If you're looking for a great movie to watch and get a feeling of "ooh, I wanna watch that again!" then, this is not your movie. However, if your looking for something to watch on a rainy night or because you're bored give it a go.

Like I said, don't pay a whole load of money to watch this movie, but if it is free or really cheap, try it. I's not so bad you're gonna wish you watched something else or feel you wasted your time, but not so good you're gonna be saying "that was an awesome movie!"

Good Luck!!

+1 for Gratuitous sex scene which all horror movies should have at least 1. .

+1 Oh yes on some Grisly Deaths!!!

-1 Star for the Holding Your Breath when you Drive by a Graveyard story arc (Not walk by mind you. Walking By is okay. Only when you drive by one!)

-1 Star for a Cruddy Ending

Okay this one wasn't really that great. The Final 3rd of the movie was actually pretty bad. Bunch of running around and screaming as the plot disintegrated into pretty much nothing. -2 Stars for that

....however a good storyline was severely let down by bad acting and extremely bad dialogue. And it's a shame because this had the potential to be something different. And it went a bit wacky toward the end.