The Broken Review

I read almost everything but when it comes to my tv time I prefer something with some sort of horror/creepy/sadistic bent. I don’t care if it’s old, new, quiet or in your face. If it sounds remotely horror-ish I’m up for it.

The Broken has a slightly bizarro cover with the tagline, “Face Your Fears”. Umm, kind of difficult when Lena Headey’s missing an eyeball and her entire brain but, hey, what do I know? The cover made me pick it up . . .

The Broken (Released March 2009)

The life of a successful radiologist spirals out of control when she sees the spitting image of herself driving down a London street. While attempting to uncover who the imposter could be, she stumbles into a terrifying mystery that her family and closest friends are somehow involved in, leaving her with no one to trust.

Sounds mildly intriguing, if not mind-blowingly amazing, no?  A nefarious doppelganger, perhaps a devious family member or two keeping terrible secrets, what’s not to like? I always enjoy messed up families so this sounded like it was meant for me. Well, as my luck would have it, turns out it wasn’t.


I’m giving this DVD a 2 out of 5 and this is why.

Gina has a nice family and a loving boyfriend and everyone seems to get along swimmingly. Honestly, I could not wait for the cracks to start showing because they were a little too happy for a horror film (or any film, for that matter) and it’s not too long before they do but not in the way I had hoped. During dinner at dad’s house, a giant mirror breaks and everyone is startled. This is only the first of the randomly exploding for-no-reason-at-all mirror incidents. Gina later gets into a car accident and starts to see someone who looks just like her (or maybe the accident happens after seeing her doppleganger? I can’t recall, sorry the mind has failed me.) Anyway, after she’s released from the hospital, her lovely life begins to go to poo. Her boyfriend starts acting like a creeper and he’s starting to scare her. His vacant look scared me a little too, truth be told.

Vaguely creepy things continue to happen, more mirrors break just because, a grisly murder occurs and I began to have visions of a bloodier Invasion of the Body Snatchers starting here. I’m good with that. But it doesn’t happen. I won’t spoil things just in case you’ve an urge to see Cersei in her nudie-pants again some dark and stormy night, I’ll only say that it left me un-thrilled (the movie, not the nudie-pants).

What to say, what to say? Ugh, meh books and movies are the worst to review, aren’t they? Things started out decently enough with a nicely developed and slow building sense of dread and moody atmosphere but it lost its way somewhere near the end and lost me entirely when a twisty-twist was revealed and then the movie decides to end. And it doesn’t end in a satisfying way, it ends leaving me with questions that will never be answered! I am the type of person that can deal with a non-ending, especially one that makes me think long after the film is over, but I am not the kind of person who can sit around and quietly accept things that make no sense at all. Many of the things here simply do not make any sense at all. I was left feeling annoyed and just a wee bit crazier than I might’ve been before I put the thing in the DVD player. Ugh, I’m done thinking about this one. Perhaps you’ll like it better than nosy me. If you see it, let me know.

Meh. 2 Stars

Get it here:  Amazon