Saturday, October 16, 2021

Musty TV's Maniacal Movie Countdown - Day 16: The Broken (2008)

I have no idea how The Broken ended up on my radar, but I do know at some point a long time ago I added it to my Netflix DVD queue and then forgot about it. When I was picking films for this countdown, one of my methods was culling that insanely long Netflix queue (I think it was over 200 long!) deleting movies that are now available to watch online, and adding some of those that were horror films to this countdown. (I've got that DVD queue down to a more manageable 56 now.)

The Broken has a very intriguing set-up, with Lena Headley's character seeing what looks to be her double driving her car down the street, a set-up that reminded me a bit of Robert Altman's 1972 psychological horror film Images. After a car accident she tries to figure out who her double is, and then things start to delve into possible Invasion of the Body Snatchers territory. And then...

Well, that's the ultimate problem with this film, and this is going to be spoiler, but I don't care because I don't think it's worth anyone's time to watch this. There is no resolution. None. There is absolutely no explanation, or anything even resembling an explanation, as to why the things that happen in the film happen. I mean, I would have even been happy with some kind of bullshit ambiguous "Is she crazy or did this stuff really happen?" ending, but The Broken doesn't give us that. What happens in the movie happens. And we never find out why. It's a textbook example of a film being ruined by its ending.

But if you really feel like you need to see this one, it's available to stream or rent on several platforms. I watched it for free on Peacock.

1 comment:

Caffeinated Joe said...

That would have driven me crazy, so thanks for taking the bullet for us all.