The term elevated horror is the sort of silliness that only comes from embarrassed actors, directors, and production companies that don’t want their hands dirtied by a genre like horror. They love making their money from the fans but don’t want to admit to having made a dirty horror film. There have always been horror films and thrillers that are more contemplative, are not full of jump scares, and have more on their mind than a high body count. Movies like BROKEN BIRD have always been around. They are palette cleansers and reminders that horror, the horrific, and the macabre don’t need bloodshed to give us the chills.
This is the space BROKEN BIRD takes up, a thoughtful thriller with a very dark side once you get to its candy center.
BROKEN BIRD is the story of a lonely, quiet woman looking for connection. Her only interactions with the world are through open-mic poetry readings; otherwise, she lives in the world of her head. She works as a mortician’s assistant in a funeral home and takes great pleasure in her work—too much pleasure. Sybil is painfully lonely and she has spent her life trying to find her way out of that loneliness, though never to great success. The more we get to know the woman the more we start to see beneath her public veneer, and slowly we learn who this woman really is and the lengths she is willing to go to find the connection she so desperately needs.
This is a very good movie. The biggest knock will be that it is slow, and it is, but it’s better to say it’s methodical. It isn’t until the full picture is revealed that we learn the totality of what we were seeing and it all makes sense. It’s a film that almost demands a second viewing. There is often talk about how great actress Mia Goth was in the X trilogy, and at least the first two, she really is (I haven’t seen the third as yet). Rebecca Calder deserves the same sort of praise for her work in BROKEN BIRD. She gives a restrained performance with so much bubbling underneath and ready to explode.
It’s that bubbling fury that propels the film and launches it toward the only end that makes sense.
The film is very well directed and shot and reminds us of how potent British thrillers still are.
BROKEN BIRD won’t be for everyone, as it does have a slower pace, but for those of us who can appreciate that, and can appreciate a well-crafted thriller that will give chills when all is said and done, they will be rewarded. The sadness in the film is never overpowering but is persistent and earned. It’s definitely a film to seek out because it is very good. Well acted, well shot, and with a well-earned ending.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt15908894/
4 out of 5
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