Braving the Bargain Bin

Braving the Bargain Bin
By Jill Nagel

Hello fellow internet dwellers, and welcome to Braving the Bargain Bin, where I wade through the mundane and mediocre in hope of finding that one true hidden gem (for under $10). I’ll scour the sales racks and dig through the dregs to find the unique, the unnecessary, and the very best (worst?). Will my bargain finds be keepers (to be put on my shelf with the classics) or coasters (better to set your drink on)? The first entry to Braving the Bargain Bin is…

Title: The Broken (2008)
Genre: Horror
Price: $6.99

The Broken is a psychological horror movie, starring Nerd Queen Lena Headey (Queen Gorgo in 300, Queen Cersei in Game of Thrones) and directed by Sean Ellis (um…nothing else). Radiologist Gina (Lena Headey) seems to have her life together. She lives in London, has a good job, and a close family. With the help of her boyfriend, brother, and sister in law, Gina throws a surprise birthday party for her father (the always fantastic Richard Jenkins) and we learn that dad is retiring from the American Embassy (possibly to explain Jenkins’ accent). Everything is going well until dinner, when a mirror shatters without warning. The family thinks nothing of it and laughs. They won’t be laughing for long.

As Gina gets ready for work the next morning, it seems like just a regular day. She looks at herself in the mirror, takes a shower and heads to work. Off screen, a mirror shatters and we see Gina walk over the broken glass. We cut to Gina at work, and her co-worker swears he already saw her leave. In the next scene, Gina is in a phone booth and sees herself drive by. Yes folks, the mirror people are coming.

Gina follows herself to an apartment and looks around. She notices a framed picture of herself and her dad. As she drives away, she catches her reflection in the rear-view mirror and loses her concentration long enough to crash head on into another car. She wakes up with only minor injuries, but her memories are fragmented. She’s shaken, but there doesn’t seem to be any sign of Mirror-Gina and she allows her boyfriend, Stefan, to take her to his apartment after she agrees to see a shrink later. In true horror fashion, Gina decides to take a bath and relax away her troubles, but another mirror breaks and the ceiling begins to drip. She investigates the creepy attic but an even creepier Stefan stops her.

“I don’t think Stephan is my boyfriend,” she tells her shrink. “He looks like him but he’s not him.” Of course, the psychologist thinks her reaction is a product of the accident, but the audience knows better. This isn’t a delusion caused by trauma, but mirror duplicates taking over lives from beyond our world. They’re not just after Gina. They’re after her entire family.

Gina’s realization allows the film to move forward and surprisingly, the horror moments are a lot of fun. Have you ever wanted to see a mirror version of a woman kill her other-self by shoving her fist through her other-self’s mouth? I didn’t know I did. The cinematography was really well done. Each time we get a glimpse “behind the mirror” the director is able to create something new, clever, and even spooky at times. The image of mirror Richard Jenkins, lurking in the shadows behind his intended victim, still makes me shiver. Nothing freaks me out more than a reflection not doing what it should, and The Broken uses this techniquewell. The twist was decent (although a little predictable) and the world fit together (as much as a movie about murder driven mirror image can).

So, it was good, right?

Well, yes and no. The Broken is not nearly as bad as I assumed it would be, but the beginning tries too hard to confuse the audience by being vague. You question everything that happens, which is alright to a point, but a few more gruesome murders and a few less crash flashbacks would solved some of the serious pacing problems. The first half of The Broken drags. Once you get past that it’s not a bad flick. Still, it’s not a movie I’ll be watching again anytime soon. Once was fine, but it isn’t worth a re-watch.

Final Verdict…Coaster