Ahoy, squirts! Quint here. The first midnight film of the fest was last night. It was called BROKEN, starring 300’s Lena Headey and directed by CASHBACK’s Sean Ellis.

THE BROKEN is a horror film that takes full advantage of the longtime horror suspense staple of creepy mirror scenes. In my opinion the best use of creepy mirror stuff is still PRINCE OF DARKNESS, but if THE BROKEN had been just a little bit better it would be wearing that crown.

It’s about evil mirror people. You don’t know why or how or exactly where they come from, but for some reason they start coming busting out of mirrors and killing their real-life counterparts.

Sweet, right? You can’t go wrong with that, right? Especially when it’s directed by someone with the eye that Ellis has, right?

Unfortunately the movie is really frustrating. Ellis builds some fantastic suspense and the idea of evil mirror people is executed well for about 2 ½ minutes of the movie, but the film is just bogged down in cheap jump scares. The suspense is great, but you can only have a long drawn out moment of tension that smash cuts into a door slamming or a car honking so many times.

The movie takes its time, but it all leads to a predictable twist ending. It’s all build up with no place to go.

That doesn’t mean the scares that are in the movie aren’t effective. I jumped many times, but it’s the jump you do when someone sounds an airhorn next to your head. It’s cheap, which is sad, because the rest of the movie is classy.

There’s enough visually appealing in this movie (including a car crash in slow motion that is great… but then they replay it 5 or 6 times) to warrant a viewing by any horror fan. But I don’t think it’ll be anything that becomes a classic or anyone’s favorite movie. There’s too much missed opportunity. They go for an INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS thing, but you never feel the scope of the world being taken over by these mirror doppelgangers.

And no, none of the evil mirror twins have goatees.

More reviews coming. Stay tuned.

-Quint
quint@aintitcool.com