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Movies / On DVD / The Broken
The Broken

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The Broken (2009)

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31 %
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Reviews Counted:26

Fresh:8

Rotten:18

Average Rating:4/10

Consensus: A British chiller lacking in strongly drawn characters, The Broken feels unfinished and undercooked.

Rated: 15

Genre: Horror/Suspense

Theatrical Release:30-01-2009

Synopsis: Lena Headey (TV's TERMINATOR: THE SARAH CONNOR CHRONICLES) stars in this disturbing horror film as a woman who glimpses someone who looks just like her. In her search for answers, she comes to the... Lena Headey (TV's TERMINATOR: THE SARAH CONNOR CHRONICLES) stars in this disturbing horror film as a woman who glimpses someone who looks just like her. In her search for answers, she comes to the startling realization that her loved ones may be involved in this sinister mystery. THE BROKEN is directed by CASHBACK's Sean Ellis, and it also features Richard Jenkins (THE VISITOR) and Melvil Poupaud (BROKEN ENGLISH). [More]

Starring: Lena Headey, Richard Jenkins, Ulrich Thomsen, Asier Newman

Starring: Lena Headey, Richard Jenkins, Ulrich Thomsen, Asier Newman, Melvil Poupaud, Michelle Duncan

Director: Sean Ellis

Director: Sean Ellis
Screenwriter: Sean Ellis
Producer: Lene Bausager
Composer: Guy Farley

[See More Credits]

Reviews for The Broken

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1 - 20 (sorted by date; UK critics are listed first)
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Arrange By:Fresh | Rotten | Comments | Name | Source | Date
 
 
Reviews
Tomatometer Critic Review Category
splat
2/5

Edward Porter

A slick but unscary spine-chiller.

Full Review Source: | comment Comment | Feb., 05 2009 05:42 AM

Sunday Times (UK)

splat

Philip French

Occasionally scary, often laughably portentous, never explained.

Full Review Source: | comment Comment | Feb., 05 2009 05:32 AM

Observer [UK]

tomato
3/5

Allan Hunter

An extremely stylish, emotionally aloof film that lacks a strong enough story to create a great horror yarn.

Full Review Source: | comment Comment | Feb., 05 2009 05:26 AM

Daily Express

tomato

Neil Smith

Part mystery, part horror, it keeps us wondering what the hell is going on, while the sombre lensing ups the air of menace. The silly finale undoes a lot of the fine work, though.

Full Review Source: | comment Comment | Jan., 30 2009 05:46 AM

thelondonpaper

tomato
3/5

Kim Newman

Writer-director Sean Ellis is influenced by M. Night Shyamalan, and manages an approximation of both Shyamalan’s habitual look and whispery melodramatics.

Full Review Source: | comment Comment | Jan., 30 2009 05:38 AM

Empire Magazine

splat
1/6

Tom Huddlestone

Fleeting pleasures are undermined by an inane, directionless narrative, barely-even-one-dimensional characters and an overall sense of superficiality.

Full Review Source: | comment Comment | Jan., 30 2009 05:29 AM

Time Out

tomato
4/5

Anton Bitel

This chilling moodpiece is both psychological thriller and ghost story, with each holding up a mirror to how the other half lives.

Full Review Source: | comment Comment | Jan., 30 2009 05:16 AM

Channel 4 Film

splat
1/5

James Christopher

The tedium is almost as annoying as the sound effects.

Full Review Source: | comment Comment | Jan., 30 2009 05:00 AM

Times [UK]

splat
2/5

Peter Bradshaw

The Brøken is interesting and confident in some ways, though laden down with unfinished moods, images, ideas - and a few scary-movie cliches. It looks like a short film pumped up to feature length.

Full Review Source: | comment Comment | Jan., 30 2009 04:44 AM

Guardian [UK]

splat

Tim Robey

Pompous and dour attempt at a psychological horror movie.

Full Review Source: | comment Comment | Jan., 30 2009 04:36 AM

Daily Telegraph

tomato
3/5

With a nod and a wink to Edgar Allan Poe and Hitchcock he has created a slick, supernatural thriller set in a cold and disquietingly quiet contemporary London.

Full Review Source: | comment Comment | Jan., 30 2009 04:26 AM

Little White Lies

tomato
3/5

Tim Evans

A slick if derivative concept is well served by cold, grey cinematography and a chilling sense of shadowy menace.

Full Review Source: | comment Comment | Jan., 30 2009 04:10 AM

Sky Movies

tomato
3/5

A cerebral horror that’s more creepily unsettling than out-and-out scary.

Full Review Source: | comment Comment | Jan., 30 2009 04:00 AM

Total Film

splat

Christopher Tookey

Mr Ellis has some visual flair. He builds up a menacing atmosphere, and there are a few nasty shocks. However, he seems to have no sense at all of pace or humour. His screenplay is terrible.

Full Review Source: | comment Comment | Jan., 30 2009 03:44 AM

Daily Mail [UK]

splat
2/5

Mark Adams

This stylishly-shot psycho-thriller from Sean Ellis is a creditable stab at the horror genre, but it lacks pace and plot. There's not enough blood 'n' gore for horror fans, while thriller admirers may find it too slow.

Full Review Source: | comment Comment | Jan., 30 2009 03:34 AM

Sunday Mirror [UK]

splat
2/5

David Edwards

This is hardly a horror classic because it takes so damn long for anything to happen. And when it does, the ideas aren’t built upon, leaving you with the feeling the script is two or three rewrites away from a final draft.

Full Review Source: | comment Comment | Jan., 30 2009 03:23 AM

Daily Mirror [UK]

splat
1/5

The Sneak was left wishing another film would break through the screen.

Full Review Source: | comment Comment | Jan., 30 2009 03:14 AM

Sun Online

splat

Nigel Andrews

A Babel cast in a piece of free-associative gothic babble.

Full Review Source: | comment Comment | Jan., 30 2009 03:09 AM

Financial Times

splat
1/5

Anthony Quinn

This unbelievably ponderous British chiller keeps priming us for some shocking revelations – oodles of "scary" incidental music, ominous shots of the London skyline – and signally fails to deliver them.

Full Review Source: | comment Comment | Jan., 30 2009 02:35 AM

Independent

tomato
3/6

Derek Malcolm

Here is a film from a director with a little more imagination and skill than story-telling sense.

Full Review Source: | comment Comment | Jan., 30 2009 02:13 AM

This is London

 
 
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