Brad Anderson’s Fractured (2019) operates at the intersection of psychological thriller and domestic horror, leveraging an unreliable protagonist to interrogate themes of trauma, guilt, and institutional gaslighting. This paper argues that the film’s narrative architecture—specifically its use of ambiguous spatiality, temporal ellipses, and medical institutional settings—functions as a metaphor for post-traumatic dissociation. By analyzing cinematography, character psychology, and the film’s controversial ending, we can understand Fractured as a critique of masculine cognitive dissonance following familial crisis.
Brad Anderson’s Fractured (2019) operates at the intersection of psychological thriller and domestic horror, leveraging an unreliable protagonist to interrogate themes of trauma, guilt, and institutional gaslighting. This paper argues that the film’s narrative architecture—specifically its use of ambiguous spatiality, temporal ellipses, and medical institutional settings—functions as a metaphor for post-traumatic dissociation. By analyzing cinematography, character psychology, and the film’s controversial ending, we can understand Fractured as a critique of masculine cognitive dissonance following familial crisis.
