“It’s all been done, It’s all been done, It’s all been done before”

– Barenaked Ladies, “It’s All Been Done”

I remember THE VOID catching some flack last year for being “heavily inspired by” Carpenter movies, Hellraiser, Lovecraft, and really everything the filmmakers had ever seen. THE VOID wore its inspirations on its sleeve, andI’m not sure I would call it original. In fact, I am sure. It was not. But, I still ended up liking THE VOID despite it being derivative, because I thought there was enough meat on the bone otherwise, and because I was charmed by the movie in a “demo reel” sort of way. I had a lot of the same feelings during SEQUENCE BREAK, without the being charmed part.

SEQUENCE BREAK is a movie that feels like the filmmakers watched VIDEODROME, and said “But what if VIDEODROME was now”, which really isn’t a bad starting point, but SEQUENCE BREAK falters in the execution of that concept. Sadly it feels like it belongs in the camp of recent independent movies that feel like they were made by people who really like movies, but never really find a voice of their own.

Oz, an anti-social arcade machine repairman, spends the majority of his free time in the arcade shop being caught up in his work. In the span of a couple of days, Oz’s whole world changes with a series of events early in the film: The arcade owner informs him that the shop is going out of business, a beautiful young woman named Tess stops by the shop, and a mysterious arcade cabinet is delivered to the shop.

It’s the beautiful young woman, and mysterious arcade cabinet parts that really throw Oz for a loop though. Tess takes a liking to Oz, and the two begin to see each other, all while the mysterious arcade game begins to exhibit a sort of psycho-sexual pull on Oz– drawing him closer and seducing him. Like, actually seducing him. There are multiple scenes of OZ fingerbanging the arcade game throughout the film.

The arcade machine fingerbanging parts of the movie are pretty fun! They are gooey, gross, and they do an okay job aping the Cronenbergian body horror/ BEYOND THE BLACK RAINBOW styles that SEQUENCE BREAK really wants to emulate. These scenes are at least engaging, even if they are a bit repetitive. The technical side of SEQUENCE BREAK is pretty okay, but I am getting a little tired of independent horror movies like this being so much more focused on the technical aspect of the films they are making, rather than story. SEQUENCE BREAK falls into that category, and the movie might actually be better for it, because the narrative of the film is where things go awry for the film.

The presentation of the film’s central (human) romantic relationship between Oz and Tess, is where SEQUENCE BREAK fell apart for me. By choice, Oz is a shut-in, and almost feels like parody of a guy who plays a ton of video games. It’s never really made clear why Tess is attracted to him, other than she really likes video games as well. There is an attempt to form some sort of connection through some really clunky dialogue between the two leads in the first half of the film, but all of that is jettisoned in the back half so the focus on arcade fingerbangs, neon lights, and the synth score. But the relationship between the two leads is so unbelievable, and tired, that it’s probably for the best.

SEQUENCE BREAK’s central relationship is a tricky one to pull off in 2018: the cute, peppy girl that is attracted to the on-the-spectrum, moody, white guy. It’s been done before. A lot. And because ALL of these movies are written by bearded white men (I am a bearded white male btw) they can tip over into nerdy white guy wish fulfillment territory. Unfortunately, that’s is how their relationship in SEQUENCE BREAK comes across whether it’s intentional or not.

I don’t think the nerdy white guy love story is impossible to pull off, btw. I’m kind of exhausted by it as well, but I think it’s probably a story that can still be told– I still like Weezer for goodness sakes. But this is less Pinkerton and more Make Believe. A movie that feels inauthentic, and far more interested in using synth lines to help capture something great from the past, rather than conveying actual emotion.

One of the other issues with SEQUENCE BREAK is an issue that I feel bad for even having, but it’s one that exists, and that is its budget. With a lot of low budget films like this, there are times when the seams start to show. SEQUENCE BREAK feels like a bunch of friends with a decent budget, got together and shot a tribute to some of their favorite horror movies. That seems like fun, but there are plenty of times, when the effects, or the camerawork, or the acting, just aren’t quite convincing enough to fully buy in to the things the film attempts.

I feel bad for ragging on SEQUENCE BREAK so much. I think it’s heart is in the right place, and I think the core concept could have worked if a little more care was taken with the films central relationship. Unfortunately, SEQUENCE BREAK never finds it’s own voice, and is hampered too much by things beyond it’s control to work even in the areas it strives to.