Shattered Lives

This was the most terrible movie I have EVER seen. Im serious. The acting was terrible. The plot was bad. Scenes went on for nothing. Oh and the sound was pathetic. it would go loud and then low constantly and I don't just mean in loud scenes, just bad audio period. The beginning of the movie is pretty much the end. Then it cuts to the story of a little girl and her so called reasons for why she is messed up. Once you realize what's going on it is quite easy to figure out the story. The mom is pathetic and I think that is the only thing that gave this movie any value, the fact that the mom is so terrible that you have no sympathy for her at all. I won't go into detail as it would spoil the movie, however it doesn't matter because it's not even worth watching. Save yourselves, don't bother with this movie it's SO bad.

If I met this director i'd tell him to quit film making and find a new career!!

Actually though, I really hate bashing films like Shattered Lives.

The amount of effort, money, time, coordination, and heart that it takes to make a film --- and Carl Lindburgh did virtually everything here --- attests to the fact that he took this effort seriously. It's got to mean something to him....why does it mean so little to us?

Many reasons, actually. Shattered Lives is a good example of a neat "idea" that should never have found its way into a script-writing program. It opens with a (by now) standard montage of a psycho killer in a gas mask hacking up a room full of half-drunk, stoned kids. This might mean something if there was ever any real exposition between the killer (whose identity is obvious from reading any brief summary of the film, unfortunately) and the victims. There are a few, very quick exchanges between the kids and the killer about midway through the movie, but they don't add any kind of clear picture about possible motivations. I understand you don't need any motivation to kill someone if you're a psycho, but there's no suspense or scares to fill that gap. It's like LIndburgh made this movie to say "See, isn't it neat I can make a movie. I can turn the camera on and point it!"

This brings us to the heart of the movie, and the relationship between a little girl named Rachel and her two toy clowns who come to life whenever she's alone with them. The clowns are a problem. They are neither creepy or coherent and their behavior seems to deliberately ape the behavior of many of the ancillary characters in "Twin Peaks," especially the film "Fire Walk with Me." But whereas Lynch's inventions are very multi-dimensional and cryptic --- they're INTERESTING --- these clowns are a drag. They make insipid pantomimes, talk in ridiculous rhyming stanzas, and worse yet, their dialog is slowed down and distorted to the point that it is hard if not impossible to decipher.

In addition, there are some jaw-droppingly bad technical gaffes, the worst of which is a scene where....I kid you not....the aspect ratio changes 2 or 3 times for absolutely NO REASON. It's in a simple dialogue scene. Did someone's license to Windows DVD Maker expire?

It's a real mess, all in all. It starts from a place that you're sure you've figured out, goes on to a LONG sequence that is obvious where it's headed, then leaves you at some place you don't want to be.

Lindburgh needs to take a break from watching movies and dig up an original idea, following that with a screen writing class. Shattered Lives has nothing to offer and is a joke even by the standards of Student Film.

Unfortunately, I can not recommend this film. If there were more money invested into the technical and casting aspects of the movie, I have a feeling it would have been a great movie. However, an awful mess of poor acting, miserable (emphasis on the miserable) audio mixing, and poor direction earn this film a 1. The storyline is quite predictable, however you can't help but feel sorry for Rachel. Yes, the "dolls" are creepy, however the negative aspects described above greatly outweigh any potential there could have been with them (especially the trite robot voices). The only reason I watched past the 15 minute mark was out of sheer morbid curiosity.

I purchased Shattered Lives because I am in the middle of doctoral research on evil children in film and had no other way of watching it to check out the narrative to determine its appropriateness. After collecting over 300 titles of varying standards, I'm now down to the bottom of the proverbial barrel with this hackneyed shot-on-video student film. There are some really dreadful evil child films out there, such as Robert Voskanian's 1977 Z-grader, The Child, but this film is way more tedious with its overlong scenes and crawling pace, sloppy editing, trite dialogue and uneven soundtrack. A few reviewers have highlighted the poor performances of the actors and most of them do indeed feel very staged and self-conscious, but I'm going to leave these poor souls alone considering the substandard material they had to work with, written by the wannabe director cum producer cum editor Carl Lindberg, who is yet to produce anything of any substance and seems obsessed with emulating Donnie Darko for some inexplicable reason. Finally, a very bloody and contrived multiple murder sequence that opens and closes the film is rendered uninteresting because of its outlandish scenario so that this too devolves into pure tedium. I'm usually quite patient and forgiving with films but I found myself sighing and fast forwarding through meaningless scenes that went for too long, such as an awkward dance performed by two dwarfs dressed as harlequin dolls, endlessly circling each other for about six minutes - sounds intriguing but it's not.

My advice? There are too many really solid shot-on-video horror films flooding the market these days to justify wasting your time fast forwarding through this lifeless morass.

This is a very good low budget horror film. the mood is unsettling, kinda like a David lynch film. The clowns are creepy and effective. There is more going on this film, then just your generic b-movie horror film of teenagers being killed off one by one. I was highly entertained. I looked up the budget on this film, it was something like 70,000 ! and they shot on 35mm. films looks great visually, not sure to credit the director or DP on that one? someone needs to give these filmmakers a real budget, and see what they can come up with.... perhaps a Shattered Lives 2 is on the horizon? I loved the clown characters, and feel there is much more story behind them, where they come from? what motivates them. etc.