‘Shattered’ VOD Review

Stars: Cameron Monaghan, Frank Grillo, John Malkovich, Sasha Luss, Lilly Krug, Ash Santos, James C. Burns, Dat Phan | Written by David Loughery | Directed by Luis Prieto

Thirteen years after his last screenplay credit, writer David Loughery, who wrote blockbuster 90s action films like Passenger 57 and The Three Musketeers, returned to movies with Lakeview Terrace in 2008, and since then he seems to have specialised in films that feature characters with ulterior motives, who aren’t who they think you are; and with Obsessed he almost single-handedly looked to revive the low-budget thriller genre that was so prevalent during the era he last penned scripts for Hollywood. That determination continued with his scripts for films like Penthouse North and The Intruder; in 2020 he spiced things ups throwing in some eroticism with the script for Fatale and now comes Shattered, which takes the genre to its Basic Instinct-style roots. Though to be fair to Shattered it feels much more like an erotic thriller wannabe a la Jag Mundhra’s 90s oeuvre.

Shattered tells the story of Chris (Cameron Monaghan), a newly-minted millionaire who’s going through a divorce from his wife Jamie (Sasha Luss). On a late-night trip to the supermarket Chris meets Sky (Lilly Krug). Offering her a ride home, he instead takes Sky back to his place where have a sexual liaison. Like all good horny men, Chris becomes obsessed with Sky and the two continue their sexual relationship. Only something’s up with Sky. After all, why the hell is her roommate Lisa (Ash Santos) – the woman Sky wanted to avoid the first night she met Chris – is so upset at Sky that she didn’t come home. Like waaaaay too upset. Obsessively upset. Sky certainly seems to have some sort of allure for both men and women it seems.

Sky quickly moves in with Chris after he’s attacked in the street by a carjacker and suffers a broken leg. Big mistake right?!? We all know how things go in these kinds of films… The attack is an obvious set-up by Sky to get closer to Chris and more importantly weave her way even further into his life and newly-found fortune. Chris, being the guy who invented hi-tech security software, decides he doesn’t really know the woman he’s getting close to and so decides to use his skills to look into Sky’s background and personal life. Another big mistake!

Yes, as you can tell, there’s nothing original about Shattered, it plays with every cliche and trope of the erotic thriller genre electing not to try and subvert them or even put a twist on them. This is very much by the numbers filmmaking – and that includes Luis Prieto’s direction too. Though to be fair the genre was never one for innovation, many films followed a familiar formula, as does this film. Although Shattered‘s erotic thriller formula adds a little something – it seems Loughery’s script was also inspired by Stephen King’s Misery, with Sky becoming the overbearing, sadistic caretaker in Chris’ already isolated life.

Once we get to the point where Chris knows Sky is a real danger (after she plays with power tools that is!) the film takes a turn into sadistic territory, with Sky using all sorts of nasty tricks to get what she wants from Chris; but what she wants is ridiculously disappointing. There’s no motive here apart from sheer greed. Well, I say that, but Frank Grillo’s character turns up to try and spin things into a “rich versus poor” situation but even our protagonist Chris can see through that crap just as well as the audience can!

In the end Shattered is just another retread of the cliched erotic thriller formula, which means that if you’re a fan of the genre you’ll enjoy this. Though Gotham fans might be a bit disappointed!

**½  2.5/5

Signature Entertainment present Shattered on Digital Platforms 16th May