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.

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.

Really enjoyed this film, I like the way a lot of people who have given this film bad reviews keep mentioning the utter turd of a film "saw" just shows what sort of moron's they are!, for the budget the film makers here had i think they did a excellent job.A lot of previous reviewers criticize the film as not making sense, being pointless and also criticise the film for not showing how the victims came to be in the woods or what happened to Hope after, clearly these people have no imagination and had better stick to glossy cgi infested shite like saw!, A refreshing change in a generally boring genre!(HORROR).

Broken is a simple story of a good mother who wakes up in a nightmare. Trapped with a serial killer, she must take herself to the brink of pain and strength to survive and discover the fate of her daughter.What's good about "Broken" is the gore (I've only seen the unrated version), the performances, and the location. The brutal, unflinching gore scenes serve to unnerve the viewer - this ain't no Lifetime movie, and you're instantly on edge and expecting the worst. And the lead characters, Hope and the Man, do a good job of portraying their situations without much dialogue. There's a LOT of screaming and grunting here - I wondered what the neighbors must be thinking. Which leads me to what I found bad about "Broken" - I just never got to know or care about the characters. Is the bad man making some sort of social commentary on the sheltered lives of women? Does he want to create an equal to live out his days in the wilderness with? Does he just think it's a kick to torture women? Who knows? And Hope is pretty thinly drawn, so I'm just not into her journey of being broken or rebuilt or whatever.Still, the downbeat ending and the fact that it tried to be something more than it was are commendable.