By Forris Day Jr.
Movies about ghosts are pretty versatile and always a favorite of mine. There are so many ways to present them and so many cool locations to set them. They can be horror or comedy, it really doesn’t matter, I like them. “The Unbroken” is a ghost story hyped as “horrifying”. I watched it and found it NOT very horrifying or scary for that matter but still a really well written who-done-it.
It’s the tale of a newly divorced woman named Sarah Campbell (Aurelia Riley) who moves into a run down apartment complex. She immediately starts seeing the ghost of a creepy young boy with a creepier toy clown. After thinking she hit the boy with her car she discovers his toy clown under the vehicle. She begins searching for the elusive child. None of the neighbors seem to want to talk to her about it. Many of them are downright rude to her. She finally realizes that this is actually the ghost of a child and that the dead kid is trying to get her to help him find his killer and his body. She agrees to investigate. Will she find the murderer? She just might, but then again every answer leads to more questions. There is a bit of a love story in this one too which I thought enhanced the story quite a bit.
“The unbroken” is a really decent movie with a well written script and some very good twists. I would not call it a horror film, but maybe a scary movie at best. The ghost of the kid really didn’t look like a ghost. He was kind of…well…solid, like it was just a kid who got into his moms makeup kit and smeared it all over his face. There were a couple cheesy effects with stuff being tossed at and going through him but at that point I wasn’t a believer. Once I got past the bad effects I was able too settle in a watch the movie for what it really is and that is a good mystery. The characters were really well done particularly Daniel Baldwin as the charming neighbor. The movie also stars some really good actors who you may have seen in other larger budget films including Warwick Davis, Patrick Flanagan and Jay Laga’aia.
The bottom line is “The Unbroken” is a very well done movie although I think it is categorized incorrectly as a horror. If you enjoy a good scary movie, but not too scary, and one with a who-done-it as a story line then “The Unbroken” is a movie I highly recommend. I will say that the toy clown was pretty horrifying.
Rating: 6.5/10 – “Never trust a creepy kid”
