MovieChat Forums > The Broken (2008) Discussion > The moment that worked best

The moment that worked best

posted 16 years ago by Ramburglar
5 replies | jump to latest

When we get to see the other side of the mirror. I like the concept of an empty dark space as presented before the brother's girlfriend's doppelganger came out. I liked the skittering footsteps and the malicious whispers of the doppelganger, angry and ready to make it's move. I wish we could have gotten more of this "otherspace", like a tour through the brother's apartment from the mirror side, negatively lit rooms with occasional windows into our world, positioned exactly as the mirrors are placed in the apartment.

Long pans with no relevance to the scene were the worst parts for me, and really worked to take the viewer out. A few more looks at the faces of evil that the mirror others could portray would not have hurt. Perhaps someone grinning as they drove the other car during the crash.

[–] herbsierra 16 years ago

from my perspective FWIW ...it's exactly because we DID NOT get more of this dark mirrored world that the film works for me. the best horror films leave a lot open for your mind to imagine ... that's what fails in MOST horror movies these days when everything is exposed to the nth degree and blood scenes are used as replacements for psychological horror.

[–] gtpunch 16 years ago

I agree, like they only used the "something different happening in the mirror image" effect once (in the bathroom, when she bends down and her mirror images seems to mime stabbing her), and Gina didn't see it. It's a very obvious effect that has been done many times before, I'm glad they never saw their mirror images move differently.

[–] gtpunch 16 years ago

The first scene of the movie, where she is brushing her teeth and wipes the fog off the mirror, shows her wiping both from the normal and 'dark space' sides of the mirror.

[–] Tim851 15 years ago

As I posted in another thread: Why would the mirror world be dark?

When you're standing in front of a mirror in a lit room, is your mirror dark? Shouldn't the mirror world be exactly like hours, just mirrored. Also, shouldn't the doppelganger of the girlfriend have stood right in front of the mirror, so she'd be a reflection? She stood at the side, so what the hell was the girlfriend looking at in the mirror???

The worst scene of the movie was when Gina's brother's girlfriend walks into the bathroom. The camera stays in the empty hallway for about 10 seconds - I expected to see the mirror break, at the very least. Nothing. Then it begins to pan SLOOOOOOOWLY to the kitchen. Once again, I expect to see something, anything - not nothing again.

I thought they wanted to do something with CGI, like the doppelganger getting out of the mirror and going into the kitchen to grab a knife, but then changed their minds (or budget) and didn't do it. But why leave those totally worthless 30 seconds in there?

[–] jaf-14 13 years ago

The definitive illustration of what the other side of the mirror is like:

http://www.alice-in-wonderland.net/alice2b.html