Film Review: The Unbroken (2012)

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SYNOPSIS:

Sarah Campbell is starting her life over again after a messy divorce leaves her alone for the first time in years. Having to live in a dumpy apartment complex with some interesting people is the least of her worries when strange things begin to happen including visions of a little boy in her mirrors. Sarah also starts to have nightmares about being murdered and tossed into a shallow grave by a “shadowy figure”. Her encounters with the ghostly child begin to get worse and cause “accidents” wherever she goes. After a visit to a local “Psychic/Paranormal expert”, Sarah is told that she must help the ghost complete his unfinished business so he can cross over to the other side. But what can his “Unfinished Business” be?

REVIEW:

And here we go again! Another entry into the “Ghost needs help bringing his killer to justice so he can rest” sub genre of horror films that have become rather bland if you ask me. But you didn’t ask didja? “UNBROKEN” tells the story of Sarah Campbell (Aurelia Rose) whose just gone through a ugly divorce and is looking to get her life back on track when she moves into a fairly non descript apartment complex. There she meets Tommy (Patrick Flanagan), the landlord’s nephew who’s there to help her unpack her furniture and eventually becomes a close confidant to Sarah as she begins to see a small, scar faced boy in every mirror she looks in. Actually she meets the boy before she even steps foot into her new home when she thinks she hits him with her car as she’s driving to her new place.

Of course she hasn’t hit anyone but she does find a strange little doll underneath her car. She picks it up and thinks that it might belong to a child who’s living in her complex. When she asks around and shows the doll to some neighbors, all of them are aghast at the sight of it and call her “Sick”. Why any of this is happening is a mystery to her but slowly as the film progresses she meets another neighbor, Bruce (Daniel Baldwin), who just reeks “suspicious” and a psychic (Warwick Davis) who gives her the key to resolving her situation. The question is can she figure it all out before she’s murdered to keep her mouth shut?

There really isn’t anything wrong with “UNBROKEN”. It’s got a smidge of tension and a smattering of blood to spice up the proceedings. All of the performances were good, especially Ms. Rose who has a really appealing quality to her face, the fact that she’s easy on the eyes is a plus as well. Daniel Baldwin is good too and I was really expecting to say different about him. In all honesty I think he’s far more popular as one of the patients on that dumb Dr. Drew show and as Alec’s druggie brother but he gives a nicely modulated performance here & I hope he continues on this path. Little Warwick Davis seems a bit out of place but he doesn’t hurt the film at all if you don’t mind thinking of “WILLOW” everytime you look at him (I did…).

The script (By Anthony Steven Giordano) is perfectly serviceable and neatly ties all up all loose ends (Or does it?) and director Jason Murphy keeps things moving along at a brisk (If unexciting) pace. The biggest problem I had with this film is the utter blandness of it all. It’s not a badly made film & it has a good moment or two but it’s not particularly exciting or especially different. It does what it’s supposed to do in a workmanlike manner but doesn’t aspire to do anything more than that. And that’s a shame because the performances are a lot better than the material here.

In essence, “UNBROKEN” feels more like a film designed to be shown on the Lifetime channel than an outright thriller. It’s more like a “Lite” thriller that’s gonna raise a few hackles on the few of you that are actually scared of something like this. It does nothing especially wrong, yet it fails to bring anything new to the few things it does right, like scare somebody. I will admit to feeling a bit of a chill at the film’s final image (Which I’ll leave for you to discover), it’s an especially eerie final visage that made me wonder what the rest of the film might’ve been like if it felt like this one shot did.

But It’s not a bad movie! It’s just a terribly ordinary movie that’s still worth a rental if you dig this kind of flick. Good performances help to make “UNBROKEN” a bit (But not much) better than other similar films in the “Vengeful Ghost” genre.

“Unbroken” – 2.5 out of 5 shrouds

The Unbroken (2012)