FRIGHTFEST 2024 REVIEW! This psychological horror, Broken Bird, directed by Joanne Mitchell, tells the tale of Sybil (Rebecca Calder), a disturbed mortician who loves taxidermy. It is fair to expect a horror film with such a setup to degenerate into a grand guignol waxworks within the first reel. But instead, what we get here is a slow and penetrating meditation on loneliness, with an absolute barnstormer of a central performance from Calder.
There are two strands to the plot here. We have Sybil, the mortician, a complete lunatic on a rapid downward spiral, and Emma (Sacharissa Claxton), a bereaved police detective trying to pull herself together after losing her infant son. It seems that the two strands are at odds for most of the film, with the two main roles rarely saying anything profound about each other. That aside, these are interesting characters. Although it is really Calder who is the star of the show, her severe looks and regional accent evincing the scary mania of Amanda Plummer in Butterfly Kiss.
But there are often times when the drama is at odds with the subtlety of the script. A scene where a widow works up a heated and scathing tongue-lashing for her casket-bound spouse while in the presence of a total stranger, Sybil, seems completely inauthentic. Then we see the scene was a daydream, which seems instead to be completely a waste of time.
This has a very strong supporting cast, especially Rupert Procter as Emma’s police detective superintendent and James Fleet as Sybil’s boss at the mortuary, recently bereaved and seemingly half out of things already – we are introduced to him having a nap on his slab. Robyn Rainsford is also terrific as a bereaved fiancee.
“…tells the tale of Sybil, a disturbed mortician who loves taxidermy.”
The film does very well to harness a deliciously dark Midsomer Murders vibe, and I was shocked to see the whole thing was filmed not in the UK but in Belgrade, Serbia. The locations are great. The little cafe where poetry readings take place seems like an unlikely venue, but it is a terrific space for the drama, and it moves a fair bit of the plot along deftly. However, the photography and direction sometimes felt a bit uneven, with the sets struggling to be lit one moment then looking fabulous the next.
The film’s worst problem is the frequent diversions into Sybil’s imagination, where it felt more like the director was ‘shipping’ their own characters within the piece and using Sybil’s derangement as an excuse. When Sybil imagines whole scenes and dance numbers the staging is some of the weakest in the film. So, it gets wearing when the technique is deployed several times. This gets maddening when other little scenes between characters otherwise play out with such wit.
For example, it’s hard to imagine many ways to frame a scene where a mortician impatiently harangues a bereaved woman with drugged Battenberg cake because she is desperate to get back to raping her fiancee’s remains. Still, the way they do it here seems about right.
It’s a grisly and sick little movie, then. And it has the sense to revel in its wrongness, with some pretty icky and offensive s**t, shown in interesting and thoughtful ways. Calder is a revelation, with a tightly expressive performance, ably aided by the world’s worst fringe. She is a compelling and sympathetic villain throughout.
As to whether it all resolves into a satisfying horror movie, I wasn’t quite convinced. It is a terrific film on a number of fronts, but despite all the madness and carnage, at the end it really didn’t feel like much dramatic had occurred. I suspect this was because of the numerous fantasy interludes used to portray Sybil’s mental state. Still, this is otherwise a well-composed and insanely morbid horror, with an intriguing central character.
Broken Bird screened at the 2024 Frightfest UK.
"…a grisly and sick little movie..."
