Hostile Dimensions

The multiverse is a lot like California. People talk about it all the time, but nothing good ever comes from there. Two struggling documentary filmmakers would agree. They thought the internet footage of a woman disappearing through a mysterious door was a hoax, but their latest project is about to get much bigger than they anticipated. Unfortunately, some bad things also come through that door into our world in director-screenwriter Graham Hughes’ Hostile Dimensions, which releases tomorrow in theaters and on VOD.

Ash Shah and Sam Shields do not have much to show for their last doc, an expose on the stuffed animal industry (I certainly would not have covered it). Advocating a change of pace, Shields suggests they investigate the case of a missing tagger, who became an internet sensation, thanks to online video that supposedly shows her disappearing through a strange door, mysteriously standing in the middle of a room in the abandoned house she was spray-painting.

They assume it is all a hoax, but they find the weird door right where it was in the posted clip. For the sake of their project, they pack up the door and schlep it back to Shah’s apartment, which probably sounds like a terrible idea, because it is. When they finally open the door, they find themselves in the world of “Pandemonium,” basically a Chinese restaurant and arcade parlor from Hell, populated by a psychotic man in a panda suit.

It is obviously a portal, but they have no idea how to navigate it, so they consult Innis, a cynical stoner academic, who advises them to focus their thoughts on a person or thing, before crossing the threshold, in much the same way Joel Edgerton slips between parallel diumensions in Dark Matter.  However, the shadowy figure stalking them is much more adept charting a course through the multiverse.

Even if you thought the multiverse was almost played out, Hughes still develops some clever ideas. His execution is also crisp and inventive, turning his limited budget into a virtue. Despite the big concept, Hostile Dimension is not really special effects-driven. There are some strange otherworldly visuals, but they compliment rather than carry (or compensate for) Hughes’ story and concepts.

While Shields and Shah are not unusually original or complex personas, Annabel Logan and Joma West portray them with energy and conviction. Paddy Kondracki is definitely the film’s standout, as the film’s most colorful character, Innis.

Frankly, what really makes the film so distinctive are the eccentric detours into left field. Nothing happens randomly in Hostile Dimension. Everything is part of a clever narrative, but there are several moments that cause initial head-scratching. Hughes also maintains sufficient suspense and dark vibes for the film to arguably qualify as a science fiction-horror hybrid. Regardless, it is consistently entertaining and often feels new and different. Recommended for fans of multiverse, multi-hyphenate genre films, Hostile Dimensions opens tomorrow (8/23) at the Laemmle Glendale.