After Dark Films has given independent horror filmmakers a chance to shine since 2006 with the inception of the After Dark Horrorfest film series. The slogan claims “8 films to die for,” but longtime fans of the Horrorfest understand that the series can be a mixed bag of great, and otherwise. Two of the movies from After Dark Horrorfest 3 (originally released in January of 2009 on DVD) have made their way to Blu-ray Disc: The Broken and The Butterfly Effect 3: Revelations. And it turns out that they are two of the better outings available from the series.
The Broken
The Broken manages an Invasion of the Body Snatchers feel from the beginning, which works throughout most of the movie, but the fizzles out toward the end. Gina McVey (Lena Headey – 300, Terminator: The Sarah Conner Chronicles), a successful radiologist, watches her life begin to crumble when she sees an exact image of herself driving through the streets of London. She follows this woman, but can find no answer as to who she is. On the drive home she gets into a terrible head-on collision, landing her in the hospital. Once she is recovered enough to go home, she takes up lodging at her boyfriend, Stefan Chambers’ (Melvil Poupaud) apartment. Once there, she notices changes in her boyfriend, and is worried that he isn’t who he says he is. The Invasion of the Body Snatchers inspiration then becomes clear.
The Broken does a lot right: mood and atmosphere, acting, and directing. The plot, though, suffers at the end, and the story seems incomplete. Richard Jenkins (Step Brothers, Let Me In) gives a great performance as John McVey, Gina’s father. Jenkins is generally a wonderful actor in whatever he does, and The Broken benefits greatly from his presence. Lena Headey handles her leading role with ease, and keeps the audience interested in her character for the length of the film.
Writer and director Sean Ellis finds an effective way to use mirrors through The Broken. The symbolism is clear, but doesn’t smack the viewer in the face, which is important. Unfortunately the story Ellis has written concludes with no payoff. The audience will be left wondering what, why, and how did this happen? It’s almost as if The Broken is setting up for a sequel, but I’m not sure Sean Ellis could sustain this story through another 90 minute screenplay. Ellis sets up an engaging tale, but then refuses to share the secret he obviously knows with the audience.
Even with its imperfect ending, The Broken is still a movie worth watching, and the stronger of the two films on the disc. The atmosphere is dark and mysterious, and can remind people why they enjoy the thriller/horror genre. The Broken thrives on the science fiction vibe, and the viewer can tell that something isn’t right from the beginning. This film alone makes a strong case for owning this discount Blu-ray release.
The Butterfly Effect 3: Revelations
The Butterfly Effect series is an interesting one, but not for the right reasons. The first movie stands alone as a solid title, with Ashton Kutcher delivering a surprisingly nice performance, and a story that holds together well. The second film was a useless flop that shouldn’t have been created because the story was not nearly fleshed out enough, and the pacing was painfully slow; the sequel had nothing to do with the first movie except the theme of time traveling. Revelations, the third and hopefully final film of the trilogy, also has nothing to do with the first two movies, but unlike The Butterfly Effect 2, at least Revelations tells an enjoyable story with likeable characters.
Sam Reide (Chris Carmack – The O.C.) has the ability to travel back in time (they refer to it as “jumping”) and makes a living working as a faux-psychic: he travels back to different murders, sees who commits them without getting involved, and then tells the police who to arrest. Sam’s younger sister Jenna (Rachel Miner – Bully, Penny Dreadful) acts as his watchman, taking care that he doesn’t hurt himself when he jumps back. One night Rebecca Brown (Mia Serafino), the sister of his deceased girlfriend Elizabeth Brown (Sarah Habel – Whip It, American Virgin), shows up at Sam’s door with new evidence in her sister’s murder. It turns out that a diary entry proves that Lonnie Flennons (Richard Wilkinson), the man on death row for Elizabeth’s murder, is innocent. Sam agrees to break his own jumping rules to find out who killed his girlfriend. Much like the first Butterfly Effect, this jumping causes problems for Sam and his search to find out who killed Elizabeth.
The story is more engaging than the Butterfly Effect 2, but the plot gets turbid. Any movie that deals with time traveling walks a thin line between clear and muddy, and, at the end of the day, Revelations lands on the wrong side of that line. There are questions that are left unexplained completely, and answers that don’t make sense. This plays out too sloppily to be a conscious choice on the filmmaker’s part. The end of the story is interesting, but the way the plot gets to it might lose some viewers.
Fans of the popular teen drama The O.C. will immediately recognize Chris Carmack (he looks like he hasn’t aged a bit since then). His acting never stood out in that series, and the same can be said here. He does a good job, but doesn’t do anything to blow the audience away with his personal connection to the role. Things are happening to him, and he accepts them, but there doesn’t seem to be any longing effect on his character. This is a three-dimensionality that we see with only the best actors, and though Carmack might reach that place one day, he isn’t there yet. His co-star, Rachel Miner, the stronger actor of the two, puts on another solid performance. Miner first blew me away with her stellar work in the 2001 independent film Bully, and though this performance isn’t as memorable as her work there, her talent as an actress is blatantly clear. It would be great to see her in more mainstream films so that she has a bigger audience. She strikes me as the independent filmmakers Rooney Mara, and given a larger audience, will surely move on to bigger and better scripts.
Detroit native Linda Boston has a small role as the sassy apartment landlady, but she is hysterical and worthy of mention (although she only appears on-screen for around 60 seconds). Boston makes the most of her small role, and I will be on the lookout for more performances from her in the future.
On the whole, The Butterfly Effect 3: Revelations is worth watching. Though it has nothing to do with the first two movies in the series, the story is interesting enough to deem it worthwhile. There are a lot of gore effects in this movie that are done expertly, but the gore takes a backseat to the story, unlike most films in the After Dark Horrorfest series. Much like The Broken, Revelations ranks among one of the better After Dark Horrorfest offerings.
The Blu-ray transfers of both films are exceptional. There are some shots of downtown Detroit that look especially nice in Revelations. There are less shots of the city (London, in this case) in The Broken, but this film has a lot of dark scenes that thrive in the widescreen, 1080p presentation. Though the few city shots in Revelations do not warrant a jump from DVD, The Broken does looks well enough in the dark scenes to warrant an upgrade.
On the sound end, The Broken stands out again. Both movies use an English 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio track with English SDH and Spanish subtitle options. Revelations sounds fine with no problems throughout, but The Broken uses the 5.1 audio to its fullest potential (at least at times). There is one scene from The Broken that stands out: a mirror is broken in a different room than the camera is in, and the rear left speaker plays this crash. This is an excellent use of the system, and completely immerses the audience in the movie.
Miss Horrorfest Webisodes (57:48): Contains an hour of the Miss Horrorfest submission videos. Each video is a 1-3 minute webisode, and all are in standard definition. This is a mixed bag, from the seemingly pointless to the comical, to the just plain weird. There are a lot of attractive, scantly clad women, and all are horror-themed, so that might be enough for some to enjoy this for the entire hour. If every episode didn’t have the exact same intro, this would cut around ten minutes out of the feature, and would have been greatly appreciated. This is a unique special that only After Dark Horrorfest could bring, and the better ones are worth watching; unfortunately, the viewer has to sit through a lot of garbage in between the good.
Also from Lionsgate (9:38): This is the promo video that plays when the BD is inserted. It contains trailers for After Dark Originals, which is said to premiere January 2011, My Bloody Valentine 3D, Daybreakers, The Haunting in Connecticut, Cabin Fever, and Lionsgate in HD.
My advice is to come for The Broken, and stay for The Butterfly Effect 3: Revelations. Though both films are flawed, they deliver an hour and a half of thriller/horror entertainment, which is what the After Dark Horrorfest is all about. These are two of the better outings available from the series, and give a good idea of the potential quality of independent filmmakers. This BD release provides great audio and visual quality, but merely 60 minutes of extras; given the price, however, that isn’t too shabby. These are nice for anyone looking to add budget Blu-ray Discs to his or her horror collection, or for those that want a taste of the After Dark Horrorfest film series.
After Dark Films and Lionsgate presents After Dark Horrorfest Double Feature: The Broken/The Butterfly Effect 3: Revelations . Directed by: Sean Ellis (The Broken) and Seth Grossman (The Butterfly Effect 3: Revelations). Starring: Lena Headey, Richard Jenkins, Melvil Poupaud, Michelle Duncan and Asier Newman (The Broken), Chris Carmack, Rachel Miner, Kevin Yon, and Lynch Travis (The Butterfly Effect 3: Revelations). Written by: Sean Ellis (The Broken) and Holly Brix (The Butterfly Effect 3: Revelations). Running time: 183 minutes. Rating: R. Released on Blu-ray: January 4, 2011.
