SOME OF THE early reviews of this British horror film have compared it to the much-remade Invasion of the Body Snatchers. There is, I suppose, something in that, but The Broken, in which a woman and her family are haunted by evil versions of themselves, has more in common with those ancient German shockers, such as The Student of Prague, that focused on the eerie notion of the Doppelganger.
At any rate, Sean Ellis's follow-up to the dubious Cashbackhas its flaws – the constant reference to shattered mirrors fast becomes tiresome – but The Brokenis, for the most part, an elegantly paced, unnervingly spooky piece of work. Imagine a cut-price Don't Look Nowenlivened with hints of J-Horror and you're halfway there.
This being the sort of film where fact melts into delusion, any summary of the plot is bound to be misleading, but we do know certain things for sure. Lena Headey plays Gina, a radiologist at a London hospital. The story begins with Gina attending a surprise birthday party for her dad (current Oscar nominee Richard Jenkins) and undergoing minor trauma when a mirror shatters behind the swilling revellers.
The next day, Gina spots her apparent double and follows her to a block of posh flats. Later that afternoon, Gina crashes her car and, after being released from hospital, begins (apparently) suffering from uncomfortable delusions.
Ellis employs a subtle, throbbing score and uses sinister helicopter shots of London to unsettling effect. But The Brokenis most remarkable for the satisfactory knottiness of its plot. Like too many crummy remakes of superior Japanese horror films, the film will confuse many viewers on first viewing.
Unlike those pictures, however, this strange entertainment promises that answers do exist and that it might be worth watching the film again to work them out. Recommended.
