Deja vu all over again

Inspired by the excellent Horror, Etc. podcast, I decided to investigate some new horror films. Halloween had just passed, and, as always, I felt a bit let down by the anemic horror offerings on cable TV. I mean, honestly, SyFy, "31 Days of Halloween" programming should not include repeated showings of "The Ghost Whisperer." That's all I'm sayin'. So anyway, I decided to see what juicy new offerings might be available on Netflix. I was quite thrilled to run across something called "The Brøken" which had been part of a series of films called "8 Films to Die For." Sounds thrilling, no? And it's set in London, so even more bonus points in the film's favor. Sadly, this film didn't live up to its hoped-for promise.

Gina McVey is a radiologist working in London. One day while standing on the sidewalk, she is started to see herself drive by. Shocked, she follows "herself" and eventually becomes involved in a horrific car crash. After the crash, she feels as if something is not right with many of the people in her life. Her boyfriend is suddenly acting creepy, her father is not behaving as he used to, and to make matters worse, mirrors keep crashing to the floor around her.

The story is promising and there are a few brief scary moments, but mostly the film is tediously slow. We are treated to repeated slow motion flashbacks of the car crash. And I mean REPEATED. The only thing I can surmise is that this special effect cost a packet, so by god, the director was going to get his money's worth.

It took absolute ages for anything to happen. There were lots of scenes of people looking into mirrors for prolonged periods, which is relevant to the story, but didn't have to take up so much of the film to get the point across. What was really frightening was the emaciated figure of the lead actress, Lena Headey. I did shudder every time her jutting bones swayed into view. I do, however, envy her long and graceful neck. If it takes starvation to get one of those, though, I guess I'll just have to learn to live without.

On the bright side, there was one aerial flyover of the Gherkin. It had absolutely nothing to do with the story, but it was one bright spot in an otherwise dreary film.

Final verdict for The Brøken: One Gherkin, for being an extremely slow and not very scary horror film