College student Russell (Daniel Doheny) is focused on developing a new game-changing solution to save the endangered bee population from extinction. But there’s a problem: He can’t secure enough funding. That’s before a potential lifeline shows up in the form of a random but tempting financial offer from a poodle breeder named Patti (Dot-Marie Jones), who lives off the grid on an isolated ranch. Russell visits Patti to see if her offer is legit or too good to be true. Unfortunately, after several awkward interactions and a growing sense of unease, he learns that it’s the latter. She’ll give him the cash, but with an added cost: He must breed with her daughter. 

Beginning its road to the big screen as a 2019 Tribeca Creators Market project, Breeder is as WTF-worthy as it is entertaining. Alex Goyette’s wild feature debut is the darkest of dark comedies, mining uncomfortable laughs from the absurd. It’s also an unpredictable horror ride, its insanity ratcheting up from scene to scene and its wicked malevolence resting on the shoulders of co-star Jones in one hell of a villain performance. Altogether, Breeder represents genre filmmaking at its most delightfully unruly.—Matt Barone