The Broken
Tags: psychedelic, murder, flashback

Plot synopsis:
Gina McVey (Lena Headly) is a radiologist living in London, England who is enjoying dinner one evening with her family and her boyfriend, Stefan, when a mirror shatters for no apparent reason. After a few moments, no one thinks much of it.The next day Gina is leaving work and she sees something even more troubling -- a woman who looks just like her, driving a car identical to her own. Curious, Gina sneaks into the doppelganger's apartment and sees a photo of herself and her father in the hallway. Seriously rattled, Gina runs out and drives away, only to get in an accident that lands her in the hospital.After she's released, Gina asks Stefan if she can stay with him, but while he looks the same, his personality and behavior are quite different from the way she remembers him, and she begins having vivid nightmares which become all the more terrifying when the same horrific images begin popping up in her waking hours. Determined to solve her bizarre dilemma, and realizing her family has been exposed to unspeakable danger, Gina fluctuates between grim resolve and manic despair as her odd mystery begins to unfold once she begins to retrace her steps.Gina soon discovers that doppelganger entities have escaped from a mirror broken earlier in the movie and are doppelgangers of her friends and family, killing them and taking their places. She tracks down her own double and finds her dead. Gina then remembers that SHE is the mirror double and killed her other in the first scene when they met, only to forget it after getting into a car accident which caused her mild brain damage. After one minute, Gina doppelganger remembers her true self and comes to terms with it, then her mirror father shows up outside her house. She signals that it is her.The next day, Gina goes to work as usual as London is being taken over person by person. At work she runs into her brother (not yet a doppleganger clone), who takes a long look at her and then runs away. Gina does not chase after him knowing it will only be a matter of time before his own doppelganger will kill and replace him too.

Review: Yet, brought into the domain of film, there still remains a sense of wonder about them that allow the extra-dimensional nature of the medium to truly shine.The Broken, which comes from up and coming writer/director Sean Ellis who last year wooed me with the surreal and abstract romance Cashback, not only indulges in these somewhat supernatural concepts tenfold, but does so in ways that the horror movie does so best.
If you had told me that this young film-maker would go on to make a horror movie the following year after Cashback, I would have laughed it off—and yet, I would have had to choke back that laughter after catching a glimpse of what is offered here.It all takes place in the busy city of London, as a family settles down for a small celebration of the father's birthday and retirement.
Of course, it's certainly an unsettling idea that someone could infiltrate your own existence and somehow seek to replace you, and you can bet Ellis does well to capitalise on that sense of threat and claustrophobia.Rather than stoop to genre clichés and derivatives however, Ellis subscribes instead to the roots of the more artistically-driven horror movie focusing largely on atmosphere and suspense with plenty of mystery in tow.
The result is a horror movie that doesn't necessarily feel like one that is out to scare you, but rather, unsettle you—make your mind race, and question the reality of what is going on within the characters' minds.
In the world of The Broken, central character Gina (Lina Headey) is on the verge of committing to a relationship; her father (Richard Jenkins) facing old age and retirement—it could be argued that many of the people within The Broken's story are facing the points in their lives where they symbolically end, with said doppelgänger therefore representing that very shift from life to death by their own hands.
Imagine if Kubrick, Hitchcock, and Lynch all worked together to make an existential and truly scary film mixing elements of Invasion of the Body Snatchers and sixth sense made mostly for adults, where the plot is a pure ruse or mcguffin to examine the dark side of humanity.This film wowed me, this is not your average EXCITING FAST PACED new age horror film, this is a classic horror film that uses atmosphere and theme to frighten us not just superficially but to our own personal core.
In fact, it opens up with a brilliant quote by Edgar Allen Poe, which explains the theme and ideology behind the film completely.The plot follows a woman who sees a mirror image of her self, driving her car, which leads to her following the woman to her apartment then a car accident.
I extremely loved the concept of the creepy body invaders as well as the mysteriously breaking mirrors that just added up to the eerie atmosphere.Occasionally, I felt the movie to be a wee bit repetitive, showing the accident from various angles over and over again and the story was also quite easy to puzzle out after a while.
Also, many complained about the slow pace and the lack of "action" but honestly, I liked the fact that the film wasn't filled up with unnecessary carnage and slaughter and that thanks to the slow flowing of the movie I had time to contemplate on what was going on instead of getting ready-made answers, even though towards the end everything became pretty obvious, if one payed close attention.All in all, it was a good suspense movie and I wouldn't mind watching it again..
From the beginning this film had an eerie dark feel which I love, although the first half is quite slow and I was disappointed with the numerous musical pieces that lead me to believe something was about to happen, but did not.
It's one of those films where you kinda want a sequel to continue the story in hopes of understanding it, but at the same time you know one is not coming, and even if one was, the characters are all pretty much used up anyway.
It is an 'art film', which might not be to the taste of those who like gory horror flicks, but for those who like creativity and chilling subtlety it is more than satisfying.'The Broken' is for those who like 'The Orphanage', 'Dark Water', 'House of Voices', and the original 'Invasion of the Body Snatchers'..
Long tracking shots and silence are a much more effective way of heightening tension than the rapid-fire dialogue and fast cuts which populate horror films, and nobody is better at it than the team of Ellis, Hudson, and editor Scott Thomas.
My own sensibilities were shaped by a childhood reading the tales of Edgar Allan Poe, watching "The Twilight Zone" on television and, as well as Hitchcock's work, more recent films that play with space and time like "Jacob's Ladder" and "Donnie Darko." The combination of science fiction and psychological thriller is the stuff of classic cinema and Ellis hits the mark again.
All classic horror movie shots are used to good affect, the London Underground, Mirrors, Bathroom scenes all with nods to classic horror films like Psycho and American Werewolf in London.Lena Headey carries the movie well in a very different role from that she plays in Terminator:The Sarah Connor Chronicles with good solid support, particularly from American actor Richard Jenkins as her father.Watch this movie late at night, and I dare any of you to then go and look in the Mirror without thinking twice !!!.
Don't get me wrong, it begins strong and even has a few shocking/shivering scenes towards the end, but most won't even bother paying attention to those scenes.Although the actors try really hard, they can't compensate for some script/logic flaws, that almost every other horror/thriller movie like this has.
About 45 minutes through, my wife said 'I don't understand', all I could reply was 'I don't think your supposed to yet' but we were both intrigued on how the film was to play out.What is really strange is the lack of cinematic release in the UK, compared to some of the drivel being released lately like Friday 13th remake or The last house on the left, this is miles ahead and anyone with a bit of brainpower should really take a look.If your expecting a constant stream of gore or slashings with boobies and weed, then go find the latest straight to DVD horror like Amusement in Asda.
I have no shame at all in admitting that this film had me pretty damn scared on numerous occasions.The music building suspense scenes may have been a bit to much but I think without them the film wouldn't have been so good.If your confused at the end watch her flick of the head as if a switch is going on.
This was one of the 8 films to die for at the Afterdark Horrorfest III, directed and written by little know Sean Ellis who previously worked on Cashback, which is also worth a look, in which he proved his artistic flair, he happens to be a dying breed in the film world a director and writer combined.
Lena Heady, TV's Sarah Connor, plays Gina McVey a radiologist who lives a relatively normal and simplistic life, don't they all?, who sees herself driving a car and being a normal person decides to follow herself (?) to her (?) apartment and finds a picture of her and her father (!), on the way back from this investigation obviously quite shocked by the discovery she crashes in a spectacular car crash scene that is remarkably beautiful after this accident she looses parts of her memory, she then starts to think her boyfriend Stefan, played by Melvil Poupaud, is someone else entirely and decides to investigate unravelling a very dark and disturbing reality.
The supporting cast also gives believable performances, which again will most likely be ignored due to the material of the film itself, and the scripting of the characters has been done very well but a little too well as the film seems to rely on this which is all good but it makes the jumps and horror of the script feel undermined.
I wonder if Sean Ellis knew exactly what he wanted, the movie is very confusing and ends like that, unexplained what I just saw, who are the duplicates of the characters, are there really duplicates or everything is in the imagination of some of the characters, everything is unclear and chaotic..
Lena Headey is cute, British accent and all, Richard Jenkins is lovely as ever, even in a minor role as (of course) the dad, but the rest of the film simply makes no sense.Back to the feel of the movie, the director used almost no soundtrack and instead low eerie sounds to produce feelings of uneasiness.
I don't want to spoil it by telling you what the movie is about, either; enough to say that if you are looking for a story that has some sort of meaning and conclusion, you picked the wrong film.Bottom line: I fell asleep watching it.
Summary (no spoilers)This movie is about a radiologist Gina Mcvey who organizes a surprise birthday party for her dad inviting her whole family for the function the next day she sees herself driving a car in the street so she decides to follow her to her apartment and there she sees a picture of her and her father in this woman's place.
and right after it - the tension building up again and even scarier and again - nothing, lol.but occasionally there were scares, and pretty good.pretty much nothing is explained in the end, leaving you guessing, but some discussions gave interesting ideas that probably lead to what the authors meant (no spoilers, sorry - read for yourself).nothing much to argue about quality of the movie - it is good!
Unlike the old Hitchcock movies, the ending of "The Broken" leaves you scratching your head wondering "Huh?!?!".There are plot twists and just when you think you are getting a better grasp of things, the film goes a bit south.
It'll be easy to put it down to post-trauma by the various medical and counselling experts she consults, but things start to go really out of whack especially with a series of broken mirrors she encounters, threatening both her life, and those of her loved ones.For those of us familiar with the doppelganger, then this film will likely not come as a surprise as it follows quite closely with stories like Invasion of the Body Snatchers, and various other spin offs and peers.
The other key sequence here involves that rare blood and gore that pays homage to Alfred Hitchcock's famed shower scene in Psycho, with a sicker treatment executed for the modern, jaded audience.Lena Headey does a commendable job to hold our attention for all those 80 over minutes as she becomes the film's scream queen (without the scream) as she tries to uncover just what exactly happened during the crucial minutes before that iconic accident scene, which we have a glimpse of before the fade to black.
Fans of horror and sci-fi films will likely to have guessed accurately the big reveal of the story, but even then, The Broken is still stylishly delivered, though a little less than satisfactory to the promise that Sean Ellis holds from Cashback..
All in all, the scene is 35 seconds of exciting London middle-class interior design.Aside from still lifes, the movie also has the generic premise (horror with mirrors, whee!) and the seen before twist ending, that most people figure out 10 seconds after the first plot point.But the worst thing is that NOTHING is explained.
Now I ain't saying if there is hardly any blood and gore in a horror movie it's a bad thing, but most of the film was pretty boring with hardly any tension or scares.
On the other hand, it's competently acted (Headey is pretty good in her role and it's always nice to see Richard Jenkins in a movie), has some nice moments of suspense and dread, has little gore for an R-rated fright flick (save for a choice scene in a shower) and is somewhat refreshing to watch in today's environment of dull Asian horror remakes and sequels.In the end, those who are waned on things like the "Saw" series might find it too slow and those who like less graphic fare might feel unfulfilled.
Gina decides to investigate what is happening and unravels a dark reality."The Broken" is a kind of slow-paced and stylish "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" through mirrors in London.
Ellis confirmed himself he didn't set the film up to have a twist ending and by letting the audience in on it bit by bit he simply increased the mysterious feel as the film progressed.Whether you can stomach being left behind in the dark is up to you, but if you think you can handle the lack of information on what the hell is happening, there is a little masterpiece hidden in The Broken.
Ellis' focus is an uneasy atmosphere by leaving the audience in the dark and simply showing the facts from one point of view, and he succeeds remarkably well.By far one of the most stylish horror films to come out of England in quite a while.
The Broken feels literally like half of a movie, and the fact that it is so well shot and executed makes that all the more painful.The film follows Gina (the always interesting Lena Heady) a radiologist in a Paris hospital who seems to lead a somewhat normal, if emotionally detached existence.
After attending her father's (Richard Jenkins, how's that for impressive casting?) birthday party with her lachrymose boyfriend Stefan (where a mirror inexplicably breaks) she spots what looks to be a doppelganger of herself on the street, follows her, then gets into an accident herself shortly thereafter.As many have pointed out, it would be expected for the movie to start to develop a specific plot, even though at this juncture one might argue its options are limited and not very original --- it can either go the "Jacob's Ladder" way or it can go the "Body Snatchers" way.Actually, The Broken goes NEITHER way, offering only bits and pieces of hints from which to construct mostly pointless theories.
I liked the initial premise to this film which is what led me to hunt it out but the problem I quickly found is that one pretty much knows what's going to happen within the first 20-30 minutes ( the doubles will come from behind the mirror and take over everybody).There is no real twist (which is fine) , but the final reveal doesn't make a great deal of sense either (how can she be racked with uncertainty and fear for the whole film, if she's an evil id from beyond the mirror?).Admittedly the scenes 'beyond the mirror' were chilling when they first appeared and the blonde's murder is also effectively creepy, but ultimately alas this seems to be a film in search of a story or a more engaging script, piling atmosphere upon atmosphere and over the top scary sound design for 80-90 minutes does not really cut it, in fact it gets quite dull..
The Broken (2008)We've all seen movies like this before, playing beautifully with the clichés of horror films like doppelgangers, hidden identities, and not knowing who to trust.
So, if this is your kind of movie, a psychological horror film with some supernatural overtones but not too bloody or absurd, you'll probably like it a lot, more than it's current rating implies.
There could be a great film behind this idea (not exactly an original idea, mind you, but still...) and in fact, if the filmmakers had shorn away all the supporting cast and simply stuck to Headey's character's story, The Broken could've made a reasonable 20-minute short.
By the way, once we've spent time with these evil doubles, we are totally bemused as to why anyone should be expected to be frightened of them - they just stand around, blank looks on their faces, perhaps totally harmless after killing their others.There are some nice moods and touches throughout, and I dare say director Sean Ellis could fashion a genuinely stylish and suspenseful mystery movie if he was to hire an imaginative screenwriter next time..
It has a great atmosphere since the beginning; also a chilling soundtrack and nice and thrilling scenes.The plot is intriguing but a bit confusing and just near the end I started to understand what those words of Edgar Allen Poe are supposed to be related to this film As it is a fantasy horror movie it absolutely enters in the paranormal filed, but in the end we see it's just a metaphor to represent the other self of each one of us that it's hidden behind the mirror I guess it's the final message But unlike his previous film CASHBACK Sean Ellis didn't portray it in a poetic or introspective way but in a supernatural and ghostly instead!
Then at some point she gets into a car accident and starts having memory problems afterwards.there are a few jumpscare moments, usually involving the mirrors, which are completely out of place with the tone of the rest of the movie, while Gina seeing a therapist about her memory loss, where she suddenly divulges that she thinks her boyfriend Stephan has been replaced with an imposter.
Ultimately it feels like the director didn't know what kind of movie to make, and kept trying out different styles and plot elements, never fully settling on one or the other, and ending up with this disconnect in tone slipping past the editing room and making this film....
We gave movies 2 hours running film time for a good reason.