Broken Promise (2016) (aka: Nightmare from the Past) Ashley Scott, Louis Mandylor, Nick Baillie, Lorynn York, Kinga Philipps, Angeline Appel, Mickey Rive Movie Review

Broken Promise (2016)   3/53/53/53/53/5


Ashley Scott in Broken Promise (2016) (aka: Nightmare from the Past)

Murder, Mina and Mandylor

When she was a teenager Mina (Ashley Scott - Holiday Road Trip) and Reese (Louis Mandylor - Darkness Descends) were in love, but their romance ended when after breaking in to a mansion the owner is accidentally killed by Mina only for Reese ending up serving time for the crime. 22 years later and having got married and now living a happy life with Sheriff Ben Gardner (Nick Baillie - A Surrogate's Terror), helping those who are in need, Mina finds her past coming back to haunt her when Reese is released from prison and he comes looking for her. But instead of justice Reese wants to get back with Mina, just as they were when he went down, and so he needs to get rid of the Sheriff to have the life he dreamt about all those years whilst inside.

"Broken Promise", which was aired in the UK as "Nightmare from the Past", is a movie with one interesting idea and a couple of okay ones, but in the end only manages to be another typical made for TV thriller. That interesting idea surrounds Reese who as a teen went to prison when Mina accidentally killed a guy whose home they broke into. Why? Well as it turns out he was head over heals in love with her and even back then had imagined a future together. So when he gets out of prison he can only think about carrying on where they left off to the point he shows up in his old Camino, which it has to be said looks in surprisingly good condition. It is the idea that in his mind those 22 years didn't happen has great potential for some crazy goings on but unfortunately it is not fully explored.

Louis Mandylor in Broken Promise (2016) (aka: Nightmare from the Past)

So what that means is that "Broken Promise" focuses on a couple of okay ideas with one being that Mina actually having gotten away with murder for 22 years. And then there is a bit of a question mark over who the father of her daughter is, which seems an idea which gets batted about a bit for a while as if the writer couldn't decide which way to take it. But again these are just ideas and are never fully explored which means "Broken Promise" ends up a pretty typical thriller as we have Reese out of prison and trying to get under the skin of Mina's husband and between her and him through their daughter. Yes it is nicely put together for a TV movie but nothing really special and like many a TV movie starts to get a bit far fetched the longer it goes on.

Nothing really special can be said of most of the acting with Ashley Scott and Nick Baillie doing a solid job of poorly written characters whilst Lorynn York as their daughter always looks like she has stepped off of a photo shoot. But then there is Louis Mandylor and thankfully Mandylor brings some genuine menace to the role of bad guy Reese, bringing the split second changes in expression which whilst at times is a bit pantomime is at least entertaining.

What this all boils down to is that "Broken Promise" is nothing more than a typical made for TV thriller which becomes contrived by trying to entertain. But it is entertaining with a decent performance from Luis Mandylor helping to lift it.


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