Entertainment

Frightfest 08: The Broken

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I’m leaping perilously out of chronological order here, because I want to get the reviews of the films that I didn’t enjoy out of the way first. Which is a bit foolish, because it’s often easier to find something to say about something you didn’t like than something you did. And I didn’t like The Broken.

The title most obviously refers to the numerous broken mirrors in the film, but it could just as easily allude to a number of other things, such as the main character’s car, or her lost memory. The film’s plot involves strange pod-person-esque doppelgangers - maybe The Broken of the title? - entering our world through mirrors and immediately setting out on a mission to kill their double. Once done they take their place in the world and act like unemotional automatons. Quite why they do this is never explained, but the film vaguely hints that this phenomenon is more widespread than just the characters under scrutiny here, and that the mirror people assist each other in carrying out their mission.

There’s a suggestion that the reason for the appearance of these creatures is because a mirror has been broken. So “deary me Jimbo, now you’ve broken that mirror you’ll have 7 years’ bad luck” becomes “curses Jimbo, after carelessly breaking that mirror, you’ll now be hunted down and killed by your double, who’ll then live your life for you, but take absolutely no pleasure in doing so”.

Lena Headey plays central character Gina. While enjoying a surprise birthday party for their father, Gina and family witness the dramatic shattering of a large mirror (see previous paragraph for why this is significant). Soon after we’re shown Gina’s bathroom mirror shatter, and high heels walking purposefully out of the bathroom. Gina then sees herself driving her car home, has a confrontation with the driver, manages to drive head first into a taxi while driving the car she previously saw someone who looked just like her driving, and wakes up in hospital with a nasty case of amnesia. Are you following this?

The film then takes what feels like three years focusing on Gina’s steady realisation that the mirror people are replacing her family members, starting with her boyfriend. But of course nobody believes her, least of all her mysteriously accented psychologist (Ulrich Thomsen), who just seems to blink out of existence during the film’s later stages. They all think her suspicions are simply caused by the trauma of the accident. That, and the fact that her boyfriend is a terrible actor, and nobody notices he’s been replaced, other than him suddenly taking a dislike to his own dog and frowning a lot.

Along the way we’re treated to such over-used horror staples as the dreaded dripping leak in the bathroom ceiling, the double dream sequence, and the M. Night Shyamalan “unexpected” twist. Except the twist here is probably obvious to anyone with half a brain from very early on, and results in there being absolutely no tension - or interest - in the remainder of the film. The audience can therefore amuse themselves playing spot the bloodshot eye, as Lena’s red contact lens seems to come and go with each new scene, laughing in the face of any sort of continuity.

Director Sean Ellis does a pretty good job. The film is usually nice to look at, and features some stunning views of our nation’s capitol. It’s the film’s look that brings me to prefer this over the day’s first film From Within.

But chunks of the film are repeated ad nauseam, such as Gina’s slow-mo crumpling Jeep Cherokee, and flashes of her confrontation, and despite being visually interesting it becomes quite tiring. I realise this is all intended to show Gina’s memory slowly returning, but after seeing the same red Jeep crumple in extreme slow motion for the fifth time I was contemplating what to have from Burger King after the film.

There’s an extreme sense of vagueness that seems to permeate the whole thing, and while it’s possible that this was the intention given the film’s themes, it doesn’t make for a terribly compelling horror movie. I’m not sure whether it was heavily recut or not, but it just seems to chase its own tail for a while and then resolve things in a predictable yet confusing and nonsensical manner which I’ll not spoil here. It all feels rather pointless when the credits roll.

Ultimately, The Broken’s biggest fault is that it’s very, very dull. I like Lena Headey, and I like the idea of another world inside our mirrors that somehow spawns evil beings. But the concept is under used - why not allow the mirror people to use the mirrors to move around, or offer some explanation as to what they wanted? - and instead the film depends more on confusing its audience, throwing in a gratuitous shower scene complete with over the top death, and hoping that the final twist is enough to make people think this is a good movie.

Which, I’m sorry to say, it’s not.

But fear not, because the remaining four Frightfest reviews are all of great films, and will be gracing these very pages soon.

© 2008 Is there food?.