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3 articles from 2009

27 March 2009 1:14 PM, PDT | QuietEarth.us | See recent QuietEarth news »

I'm now halfway through Lionsgate's After Dark Horrorfest III box and I must say, so far I'm impressed with this year's offerings. However, we received the box a little too late to craft in-depth reviews of each film by Monday so I decided to take a shorter look at each film in two big mega-posts.

Continue on to read mini-reviews of The Broken, Perkins 14, Butterfly Effect 3: Revelations and Dying Breed.

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Title: The Broken

Year: 2009

Director: Sean Ellis

Writer: Sean Ellis

IMDb: link

Trailer: link

Amazon: Purchase

Review by: agentorange

Rating: 7 out of 10

British newcomer Sean Ellis (Cashback) taps into early Polanski and blends it with Hitchcock's Veritigo in this classy urban thriller about a woman who becomes increasingly dislodged from reality when she sees what appears to be her doppelgänger driving down the street.

The Broken is, so far anyway, a stand out of the After Dark set »

27 January 2009 9:17 AM, PST | Twitch | See recent Twitch news »

[While our forum has been a quiet place for the last little while, there are still regular visitors that lurk there and drop some quality opinions on those little films from around the world we love so much.  Because I am more than a bit jealous that regular reader Onderhond has seen this film and his thoughts are very well articulated, his review has been punted out of the forum and onto the main-site below:]

It is weird how The Broken seems to have slipped under so many radars. Cashback, Sean Ellis’ first film, gained the director many fans, many of whom should be more than excited to see his follow-up. Maybe it’s because The Broken is very different in style, maybe it’s because Mirrors has a superficially similar theme or maybe it’s just because this film could be quite difficult to market.  While Cashback was quite light, humorous and even poetic in tone, The Broken is simply dark and menacing. Something Ellis’ claims to be closer to his home territory, and who can contradict him after seeing his newest film? Every part of the film is tweaked to inject some sense of real dread into the audience.

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- Kurt Halfyard

11 January 2009 12:33 PM, PST | Cinematical | See recent Cinematical news »

By Kim Voynar (original publication date: 1/23/08 -- Sundance Film Festival)

I'm not what I would call a serious fan of the horror genre overall, but I do like smart horror films, and The Broken, by Cashback director Sean Ellis, was a pretty smart film. I've had some arguments the past couple days about Cashback, and while that film has its weaknesses in the story structure, Ellis's strength as a director lies in imaginative visual sequences, a skill he uses to great effect in The Broken.

Gina (Lena Headey) and her boyfriend Stefan (Melvil Poupaud) go to Gina's father's house for a surprise birthday party. Her dad, who works for the Us Embassy in London, is nearing retirement. Gina's brother Daniel and his girlfriend Kate show up for the party as well; the party is nice but uneventful, until a large mirror in the dining room suddenly shatters for no apparent reason. »

- Cinematical staff

3 articles from 2009