The Flicks

The Broken

After seeing her double driving her car one afternoon, Gina McVey’s (Lena Hedey, 300) seemingly perfect life takes a detour toward crazy.  She pursues the doppelganger back to her apartment where she finds a picture of her and her dad.  Panicked, she leaves in the same vehicle and gets in a massive car accident.  Upon recovery she believes that someone is trying to replace her.  As she investigates, she discovers there’s more to her reflection than she bargained for. 

The Brokenis a far departure from the other seven films included in the complete After Dark Horrorfest on Blu-ray.  There’s a lot more subtlety and atmosphere that builds upon itself to tell its story rather than the gore soaked methods used by the other films.  That doesn’t make it better or worse, just different. With that said, it’s also a tad bit slower.  It wasn’t until the last 20 minutes of the film that it started revealing the events the story was building on, and although it’s an incredibly cool idea, it’s not fully realized.  You learn what happens and that’s it. There’s no explanation and there’s so much more that could have been done.

Butterfly Effect 3: Revelations

Sam Reide, (Chris Carmack, The O.C) has an incredible ability to travel back in time.  Rather than use it to place huge bets on the outcome of football games, he uses his awesome powers to assist the police in solving crimes, for free.  When his murdered ex girlfriend’s sister reveals some new evidence in the case, Sam decides to go back in time to find out who was really responsible and prevent the murder. His interference causes far worse implications and he must travel back in time further to fix it.  With each new jump he makes, the repercussions get more severe, causing him to become a suspect in the murders he’s trying to prevent.

Named for a term in chaos theory about subtle changes in one place having a profound effect in another (metaphorically, changing one stroke of a butterfly’s wings may cause severe atmospheric changes elsewhere), Butterfly Effect 3 has Sam making changes in each jump that greatly affect the outcome in “real” life, which is an interesting concept.  How often have we wished to go back in time and change just ONE little harmless thing?  Unfortunately, Sam’s changes become more dangerous each time.

With Sam bouncing in and out of everyone’s life like he does, it gets rather creepy.  He hides in people’s closets and in the shadows waiting for a “killer” to show up.  With each new jump in time, Sam keeps finding himself closer and closer to each murder and his behavior becomes more erratic and volatile.  Watching him unravel this way is one of the better aspects of the film.  He knows he’s losing this battle, but he struggles to keep fighting regardless.  The only one who remains a constant in his life is his sister Jenna, (Rachel Miner, Californication) who knows of Sam’s abilities. 

The film sets itself up and slowly begins to spiral out of control until its shocking finale.  This one is hard to predict which makes it much more exciting when the killer is finally revealed.  The decisions that Sam must make to counteract it are heartbreaking.  There’s a resolution here, but it’s not a happy one.  Regardless, Butterfly Effect 3: Revelations delivers a short but great ride through time.

Audio and Video

Both films feature the same 1080p High Def widescreen presentation and Lionsgate has done a fantastic job keep the heavily used dark tones incredibly crisp.  The English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 on both films is at times over powering, but I’d rather it be louder than the other way around. With that said, The Broken uses a lot of sound effects to produce the bulk of its “scare” moments.  For the most part it works but occasionally it’s forced.  Regardless, both films have decent soundtracks.  

Special Features and Packaging

After Dark Horrorfest Double Feature to Die For Vol 3: The Broken andButterfly Effect 3: Revelations on Blu-ray comes as a single-disc collection in a standard recycle case with the following extras:

• Miss Horrorfest Contest Webisodes

The Horrorfest webisodes are just a bunch of short clips from the many girls submitting videos for the title.  It’s a lot of scantily clad women in black leather and fangs trying their best to look like professional actors.  It’s all laughably bad, but the ladies are hot and that’s at least worth a look.

Overall

Both films hinge themselves on the plot twists at the very end and both of them do it very well.  The Broken offers a more subtle experience that will leave you wanting more, but overall these two films are some of the better ones in this series and this volume should definitely find its way into your collection.

ComicsOnline gives After Dark Horrorfest Double Feature to Die For Vol 3: The Broken andButterfly Effect 3: Revelations on Blu-ray  3.5 out of 5 shattered mirrors.

Buy After Dark Horrorfest Vol. 3 on Blu-ray at Amazon.com now.

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