Torn Hearts

Country singing duo Torn Hearts, Jordan (Abby Quinn) and Leigh (Alexxis Lemire) are mired touring the Nashville toilet circuit, when their manager (Leigh’s partner) Richie (Joshua Leonard) gets them a showcase show to impress country colossus Caleb Crawford (Shiloh Fernandez).

One drink after another leads to Caleb bedding Jordan who’s then told that there’ll be no tour; its male only. Feeling used she still has a recording session to do with Leigh though on their way they decide to stop by Harper Dutch’s (Katey Sagal) house a former country legend who since the death of her sister has virtually disappeared. Naively thinking they could write a song with her, to their surprise they are let in.

The house borders on the derelict while inside there’s the trappings of Harper’s former life with costumes and paraphernalia on display. A strange rapport builds between the three as the boozing starts. The next morning, hungover, they are up wearing tour shirts and with Harper in an odd mood that sees her manipulate the best friends into a fight. Richie then turns up to greeted by Harper and Lee, leaving Jordan locked in the basement where she makes a discovery.

What Torn Hearts doesn’t lack is acting quality with the three leads digging into Rachel Koller Croft’s wordy script as Harper goes about weaving her own world then dragging and splintering Leigh and Jordan’s.

It’s solidly directed by Brea Grant, with little in the way of violence as Torn Hearts aims for the psychological. And this is where it slips up is that it can’t really build on the macabre elements that are introduced and the mind games played by Harper. They aren’t that gripping and there’s never any real sense of being truly weird. The potential is there with Sagal tottering towards all out ham, just pulling it back from the edge, in the trappings of a house that brings to mind the bizarreness of both Norman Bates and Mrs Havisham.