When it comes to psychological thrillers, a few constants are sure to come up at some point: twists and turns to keep the audience on their toes, moody aesthetics, a gorgeous femme fatale, and the clueless guy enchanted by her. Luis Prieto’s Shattered easily has all of those, but unfortunately also suffers from the common pitfalls associated with these types of movies. 

It starts interestingly enough with hapless, recently divorced protagonist Chris (Cameron Monaghan) making a late night run to the grocery store, where he happens upon the beautiful, overly friendly Sky (Lilly Krug). Dripping wet from the rain, she awkwardly calls out to him and asks for his help in choosing a bottle of wine. There’s an instant chemistry between the two as they’re both young, attractive, and charismatic. 

You know where this is going next. Already enamored with her, nice guy Chris offers to give her a ride home. Home, however, is not a place Sky wants to be. She’s having roommate trouble, and is in no hurry to go back to the uncomfortable situation she’s currently in. Chris offers for her to hang out at his place with him, instead, to which she agrees to after some well orchestrated hesitation.

Though breadcrumbs of evidence were given beforehand, it becomes very obvious once they pull up to his palatial mountain home that Chris is very, very rich. Sky remarks that he must be housesitting for his parents, which is an understandable assumption given his age and the refined style of decor. This gives the opportunity for the much-needed exposition dump to happen quickly and with believability as he explains that his wealth came from creating, and ultimately selling, mobile apps and games. 

All of this takes place within the first 20 minutes of the film, and already, the blueprints for what type of story this will become have been laid out so overtly that each scene that follows hardly comes as a surprise. The two share a passionate night together after a brief conversation over wine, and Chris awakens the next morning to find Sky already gone. He’s noticeably dejected, maybe even a little too much considering that at this point she’s still practically a stranger. They say if something appears too good to be true, it probably is, and this is precisely what the remaining acts of Shattered build themselves on. 

John Malkovich eventually shows up as the slummy, yet somehow likable Ronald. The choice to cast such an iconic actor in a role like this is perplexing, particularly when he’s in the movie so little, while also somehow managing to be one of the best parts of the entire movie. Unfortunately, his talent and time are wasted on being used as the Macguffin to fill in some rather gaping holes that would have otherwise been exposed.

The final act of Shattered moves quickly through one predictable moment after another. There are plenty of scenes placed for shock value, and the intensity is amped up effectively, but it hardly offers anything new that hasn’t been seen dozens of times before. There are so many conveniently placed plot devices that it essentially goes from intriguing to annoying during a time when it should be at its most exciting. 

Shattered has good intentions, but tries too hard to be smarter and more sophisticated than it actually is, with one- dimensional characters who we don’t ever get to truly know. Despite this, it remains at its core a well acted cautionary tale with bits of social commentary added in to keep it an interesting addition to the erotic thriller subgenre. 

6 Out of 10