In the song “Rewind” by Better than Ezra, the band writes: “right there, a sone became a soundtrack for a place and time.” And I think this sentiment is the central thesis of S.J. Creazzo’s horror/psychological thriller “Shattered Soul”—that trauma can become a holding place or a prison from which its sufferers cannot escape. The independent film, at 79 minutes, explores this idea amidst psychological discussion, conversations on good and evil, and Biblical thematics such as god and the devil. It’s primarily a two-hander: actresses Alison Stover and Diana Cherkas mostly carry this film, leaving food for thought and questions in its wake.
“Shattered Soul” reminded me of two other films of Biblical nature, “What Dreams May Come” and “End of Days,” both in different ways. The basic plot is that a mother, Evie (Cherkas) has lost her young daughter in a tragic accident yet represses the memory of its occurrence due to its pain. She’s been going to therapy, however her therapist, Rebecca (Stover) seems to be losing patience with her. She tries an aggressive approach to help Evie remember. Yet by the film’s 20-minute mark, Rebecca will drop a choice in Evie’s lap that stuns and shocks her. The film then departs on a psychological journey and game of cat-and-mouse that’s hard to talk about further without giving away plot details. But since “Shattered Soul” ends on notes that make one think its takeaways are subjective, we’ll tread lightly.
An Indie Film of Psychological Conversation
Watching commentary on the AMC hit series “Breaking Bad” recently, I learned of the cinematic term “bottle episode.” It’s where a show is running low on budget and films one episode in one confined location to cut down on costs. “Shattered Soul” is a bottle movie. 90% of the film takes place in Rebecca’s office, and cinematographers Rich Cook (a S.J. Creazzo regular) and Jules Crespo make the office bright, vibrant, and immovable. The stage setting is brilliant, fixating on Rebecca’s office door (which seems to be the door to Evie’s prison) and her back window, where Evie longingly looks out, seeing both hope (fleeting) and despair. Rich Cirillo also adds an eerie score, making the happenings forlorn and mythical. There’re also sparse sequences using camera trickery and some manner of CGI which I’m anxious to discover how the camera team achieved.
The acting here is very good, which both Cherkas and Stover playing off each other well. Cherkas’ job for most of the film is to live in a small shell of trauma and fear, and she delivers. Evie is a driven woman but afraid of the answers to some of the questions she seeks. Her daughter having died in a car accident she supposedly caused, she runs from responsibility, regret, and the harm it’s caused her and her family (we learn her husband left her because of the event). She goes to great lengths to avoid asking a simple question (of herself, of her daughter), and a scene towards the end, as she does, has the levity of forgiveness and the grace of absolution. Yet it’s short-lived.
Cherkas and Stover are Excellent
Rebecca is a mixed bag, and to avoid spoilers I’ll need to skirt some obvious plot points. To me, she was the true powerhouse of “Shattered Soul.” For most of the film’s run-time, she has an angle to play, and the way Stover is able to speak in indefatigable double talk over Evie—who grows tired of her indirect manner—without herself growing tired is expertly done. Rebecca’s control over Evie is palpable and she handles the film’s massive dialogue dumps with ease. She promises Evie things (an answer, her daughter, freedom), and through clever cinematography, she convinces us she can deliver. And while Rebecca’s manipulations run most of the film’s discussions, I was most impressed with her performance near the film’s end. Rebecca (or whomever she is) becomes kind, compassionate, and loving. It makes us guess who and what she really is, which I feel is one of the points of Creazzo’s narrative.
It’s unfair to talk about “Shattered Soul” without talking about its religious aspect, which can be profound. It’s not a “spiritual” film—most times it’s the opposite. Yet some of its discussions on the nature of good and evil—and of God and Satan—are intriguing. They hold similarity to the aforementioned “End of Days” in depicting how devilish conversations might actually happen, rather than relying on Biblical anecdotes. Creazzo’s film also touches on the ultimate point of what evil wants: not to have us do terrible deeds for its benefit, but rather rooting for the destruction of what’s left of our soul. Evie’s soul is fractured; how can her child’s death not cause that? But her redemption lies in the one action she’s most terrified to make: forgiving herself.
Good, Evil, and the Hope of Redemption
“Shattered Soul” is a solid film. It has intriguing conversations, is mostly dialogue, and the skill with which Stover and Cherkas memorized the lengthy script is impressive. It has some con-fuddling elements interspersed within—including conversations with Cherkas in a flipped role and Dreamality Entertainment regular Gabrielle Kalomiris that can become oversaturated—but overall I enjoyed its takeaways. For a horror film it offers tinges of hope and ends with the hanging feeing that it all could have been a dream. Yet creator S.J. Creazzo doesn’t hand us the answers but makes us work for them. Despite its verbosity, “Shattered Soul” is a good film that makes us think. Its takeaways are real and poignant and should do well with those who like horror and a good psychological mind job.
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