Broken (2007)

Not to be confused with the other film called "Broken" I reviewed back in April of this year. This "Broken" was released by Dimension Extreme back in 2006 at the height of the torture porn craze. Riding the coattails of the "Saw" and "Hostel" Movies, this low budget British import is all kinds of nasty, but in the end is not all that interesting. The film is also supposedly based on a true story. Like a lot of horror movies were given a gruesome opening scene that gives you a taste of what's to come. We are then introduced to Hope (quite the metaphorical name), a young woman out on a date having a good time. She returns home to say goodnight to her 6 year old daughter and goes to sleep only to wake up buried underground. The story is then structured into days she is held captive my a mysterious psychopath. After Day 2 she is dug up and tied to a tree, similar to another victim from the opening scene. A razor blade has been sewn up in her abdomen leaving her not choice but to dig it out, and cut her self free from the tree. The make-up and effects are supremely disgusting all through the film and are the main reason to watch it in the first place. Unfortunately like a lot of horror movies the story and characters are weak and poorly drawn. The plot is very thin and predictable with only the final scenes being somewhat original.The unnamed male psychopath takes his victims into the woods and sets up camp. He chains Hope to a tree and trains her to be his slave but not in any sexual way. After a few days he tests her loyalty and another few times she tries to escape but all things lead back to the camp and Hope being physically and mentally beaten and abused. About 10 days in the Man brings back another girl, a teenager who won't stop whining and crying, she really tests the viewers patience. This is kind of strange in that you really want the girl to die, just so she would shut the hell up. The man does gets fed up with her and cuts her tongue out. It's only a matter of time before the women hatch a plan to escape and the Man's reign of terror come to an end. Like I mentioned before the ending is a little different that what you'd expect, as it takes an extremely cruel twist in the spirit an extremely cruel movie.

What started out feeling like a bad, British response to Wolf Creek, ended up feeling like a bad, British response to the already bad, American films; Captivity and Amusement.Bizarrely, while doing some research for this film, I found nothing but praise. It was low- budget, which is usually enough to find that everyone hates it, whereas I don't. In this case, it was a strange reversal, I hated it (not because of its cheap production values) because it was boring. The film is supposedly based on a "true story", but listening to an interview with director Adam Mason, it turns out this "true story" goes thusly; There was once a killer who dumped his victims in the woods. This movie is in the woods. Also the killer has characteristics that many other real life murderers could have. Yep, "could" have. So it's "based on a true story" in the same way that Titanic is "based" on the life and times of Marco Polo... You know... 'Cause there was a boat.I'd just like to reiterate that this film was woefully boooring. Because I believe that it's probably the worst thing that a film can be. Movies are, after all, filed under the category of "entertainment", so what sort of entertainment is it if it's not in the lest bit entertaining!? There's a couple of okay-ish things about it. The killer's not too clichéd, although he's so obviously based on Jigsaw, and not any real life killer. Also I think that happy endings are a cop out, this film does not contain one, so points there. But honestly, when you only have 2 characters, it'd be nice to see some damn character development!There's very, very little to this movie, so already I'm running out of things to say. This is not to somehow be mistaken for a compliment. Broken was just plain bad. Ending and beginning aside, there's nothing at all to it, other than annoyance. Ridiculous amounts of filler, it made me wonder if the guys behind it had any idea what they were going to do when they started rolling the cameras, it seemed more like "Ahhh, crap uh, um, you don't like this guy Ms. ActressLady, just run with it! And you! You're scared, so, be scared? Scream, yes, just scream, that can be your entire role for the next 20 minutes, only scream!"Boring. Boring. Broken. The only reason I didn't feel this film was a complete waste of time, was because I stopped paying attention half way through and started drawing a puppy. So it was only a waste of half my time.11%-Gimly

This movie was so horribly bad I could barely finish it (but I forced myself to finish because I can't leave something unfinished). I had to watch it on mute sometimes just to avoid listening to the terrible lead actress screaming & crying & whining all the time (it made me hope the killer would finish her off quickly). The characters are all unattractive & hard to watch for their poor acting, which I can excuse, I guess, since the movie had a small budget. But, this film also made no sense at all. With little dialogue, a ridiculous plot with no explanations & what looks like hand-cam footage, this film, for me, was a total flop. I'll give a little props to the realistic gore, but that's about all I can do...

Here's the simple plot summary..."After dating a wonderful man, Hope comes back home, sees her daughter Jennifer and goes to sleep. She wakes-up in the woods in a box in a hole, and a psychopath, fighting to survive for more than forty days and asking information about her daughter to the stranger."It says its based on a true story, and wow, what an ordeal that must have been, because the movie is extremely nasty and disturbing. The short back story of Hope was an add on according to the filmmakers, they were going to start the movie with Hope waking up in a box in a grave, and you don't know who anybody is, which I actually think would have even been better. But moreorless, you still don't know who anybody is, nor do you really care, because this movie is about survival against extremely long odds. The psychopath woodsman, apparently is kidnapping women and putting them through extreme tests to hopefully for him, find one that can be his companion. After waking up, the women are placed hanging on their tiptoes tied by the neck to a tree, and a razor blade has been implanted in their stomachs. The object is, they have to dig out the razor blade through the stitches, cut the rope, and then they are free to pass his other tests. For Hope, the tests don't go much further than that, because the woodsman is impressed with her, and she learns how to cope with the madman, until she figures out a way to escape. The whole beginning credits get the movie off to a very excruciating start, as a previous woman is scene attempting to dig out the razor blade to free herself, with her guts falling out of her belly, and then pleading for the woodsman to kill her. She grabs the trigger of the shotgun in her face, and pulls the trigger, and wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeee, we are off to the races. It seems the woodsman doesn't actually think he is killing anybody, because he gives them a chance to survive, and if they don't, well, it's their fault for being so weak and stupid. While Hope is being held captive, the woodsman brings in another woman who does not stop crying and begging, which irritates even Hope. Simple enough, he takes a nice long hunting knife and cuts out her tongue and vocal cords. Yea boy, that will fix that problem every time. Wonder if that would have saved one of my marriages?? I'm talking about the wife of course. This movie has been compared to SAW, which is totally misleading. Nothing about the two are similar, except for maybe the tree and razor blade thing, which Jigsaw should have thought of. This movie is very good, very depressing, and even the ending which looks promising, delivers a gut punch that is totally unexpected all the way around. You see, all through this, Hope is concerned more for her daughter than herself, because her daughter disappeared with her, and the woodsman only says her daughter was too weak. The movie is never boring, and very interesting as this strange bizarre woodsman, seems to be only looking for a mate. It does not fall into that idiot genre name torture porn, which I hate, because after the initial scenes, it comes down to a cat and mouse game, with the mouse slowly figuring out how to trap the cat. This is the one with everybody saying how terrible the commentary is, and for only the few minutes I listened to it so far, it does seem to be very annoying.