Broken - Nessuno vi salverà

Broken is a grim low-budget horror film in the old-school tradition. I won't go into details about the story, as most comments already cover that. What I will say is this: Made for next to nothing, and with a simple and strong premise, it's an impressive piece of work. Firstly, it looks great. Atmospheric and intense, the photography suits the theme of the film. There are some shots near the end that simply look superb, and they've really captured that moist, raw "waking up in the woods in the morning"-feeling.

The story is simple and raw. The screenplay is well structured and exploits the premise without ever repeating itself. That's an accomplishment in itself! And it's scary and intense. The gore is well done without being over the top, and the acting is good.

I'm happy to see that people notice low-budget films like this, and give them the attention they deserve. Check it out!

An abysmally poor entry into the 'torture porn' genre, a British movie shot out in the Cambridgeshire woods somewhere with the writer/director's own wife playing a central role. I have two questions after watching this: who told the writing/directing team they could direct, and who told the main actress she could act?

BROKEN is the worst kind of horror film, a repulsive exercise in sadism designed to cash in on the popularity of the SAW franchise, which it rips off throughout (and most notably at the beginning). The opening credits play out over a montage of a young woman trying to retrieve a razorblade sewn inside her stomach, and if that sounds like your idea of entertainment then you're welcome to it. The repetitive self-mutilation continues for another twenty minutes or so before the film settles down into a plot less affair which tries to depict a supposedly tense relationship between hostage and captor.

The truth is that BROKEN is entirely void of original idea and intent, so instead it ups the ante in terms of on-screen gore and general nastiness. Not that the special effects are good, because they aren't, but there's a general undercurrent of depravity and sadism which makes it an alternatively gruelling and boring watch. Despite the unpleasantness, there's never any suspense or tension in any of the hackneyed scenes, and the intensely irritating Nadja Brand fails to elicit one iota of sympathy for her character's plight. The villain is a nobody, there's no motivation or backstory for any of the characters, no attempts at characterisation or realism. Just endless repetition and padding until the final, merciful moments.

After dating a wonderful man, Hope (Nadja Brand) comes back home, sees her daughter Jennifer and goes to sleep. She wakes-up in the woods with a psychopath (Eric Colvin), fighting to survive for more than forty days and asking information about her daughter to the stranger.

"Broken" is a sick, unpleasant and disturbing low budget movie. In spite of having a reference in the beginning of the movie that it is based on a true event, the pointless story is completely flawed, the character of Hope is a total idiot and the schoolgirl is very stupid and annoying. There is no explanation about where they are and how the women have been kidnapped and transported to the middle of nowhere; Hope is an imbecile, and I do not understand how her character does not kill the sadistic maniac when she has the chance and after being tortured the way she had been; the schoolgirl screaming all the time is really irritating, provoking the nasty situation with her tongue. I did not like this gross movie. My vote is three.

Title (Brazil): "Jogos Sangrentos" ("Bloody Games")

I just can't agree with the nay sayers on this title. I watch an average of 40 horror films a month so for my taste I can instantly spot something that rises above the crap. True, there are many mysteries and perhaps because of that holes in the movie. The how's and Why's of the situation are never explained but then again a real life victim that is kidnapped,tortured and condition seldom gets a pat answer. The acting is convincing as is the gore and while the story is simple it's never boring.I think some people might have a problem with it's raw non Hollywood feel.SOme may link this to the current trend of "Torture Porn" but this is a far cry from the slick and premeditated madness of Saw or Hostel. THis is actually closer to the seventies horror survival films like Alive,Man In THe WIlderness,I spit on Your Grave and The Town That Dreaded Sundown. With such awful films like the remake of The Invasion Of The Bodysnatchers,The Boogey Man,Hide And Seek and Hostel 2 I am continually perplexed to hear people trash a film like this so indiscriminately. What is your cup of tea,Final Destination 3?

This movie begins with a brutal opening scene which sets a very dark and horrifying tone for the rest of the movie. I think what I loved most about Broken was the connection between the victim and villain. I don't want to get too much into the plot but the deeper and unspoken aspect of how the relationship worked between the two seemed so realistic to me that it made it much more real and creepy. This movie made it seem like this situation could happen to just anyone.

I loved the main actress and thought she did a wonderful job playing the victim and then adjusting to her surroundings in order to be able to survive. Another thing that made it more realistic was she was just a normal woman. Gone was the Hollywood girls with big hair, short skirts and huge fake boobs. This was your average attractive woman, single mom, lonely and looking for love. She was human… not some airheaded college student who runs upstairs when the door is downstairs. She made this movie seem that much more real to me.

I also found the camera work to be dark and despairing. They were outside, yet the atmosphere was dark and gray. It looked cold and everything looked sad and morbid.

I truly enjoyed this movie. A very nice surprise for a movie that is super low budget. One thing I would like to add about this movie was that they were comparing it to Saw. I think that this comparison ruined the movie for some folks as they watched it expecting a Saw type thing and ended up watching something completely different, not even comparable. I don't know why they would make that comparison, it only seemed to hurt the reviews.

Overall a great film that pulled me in right from the beginning.

ZombieSteak.com - Discover a new world of horror films, designed just for you.