Broken

‘Broken’ is a movie filmed in the UK that I was recently given a screener disc for. Due for release in August of this year it is a brutal and graphic psychological horror that despite its fairly low budget looks set to make a big impact on horror fans worldwide.

Single mother ‘Hope’ wakes to find herself alone and buried alive in a solid wooden crate. Separated from her daughter she is dug screaming from the ground by a mysterious and nameless man who takes her captive forcing her to perform a series of disturbing and degrading tasks in order to stay alive. This is extreme survival horror at its nastiest and over the course of the following weeks she must decide just how

much pain and humiliation she is willing to take to fight for her life and regain her freedom.

I’m a huge fan of horror movies, I pride myself on being able to sit through pretty much any kind of horror, from graphic violent movies to thrillers and chillers and those that make you jump out of your seat. Broken is a mix of several different styles but one of its best attributes is the truly realistic and utterly disgusting special effects. It won the ‘Best Makeup Award’ at Austin Fantastic Fest, Texas, and quite rightly so in my opinion. There’s a scene where a woman has to literally dig open her own stomach to find a razor blade buried beneath her skin which provides the only means of escape as she hangs dangling from a tree (Yeah yeah, I know you’re all thinking ‘Saw’ rip off! But trust me, that’s the only real similarity between the two despite what critics might lead you to believe.)

As well as having some seriously good stomach churning effects I also loved the way this movie had an element of psychological horror to it. Hope gradually begins to almost depend on her captor and at times it sometimes seemed as if she no longer wanted to escape and was seeking his approval, pushing their twisted ‘Master/Slave’ relationship to the max. Nadja Brand gave a fantastic performance as ‘Hope’ her role as the mother who would do anything to find her child was not only convincing but a real credit to the British acting scene. Eric Colvin who played ‘The Man’ was also great in his role, and although he was a man of few words his body language and facial expressions said it all.

There is only one part of this film that I can say I was slightly disappointed by and that was its ending. I’m probably just being picky so if you’ve seen the movie at any of its advanced festival screenings last year or by any other means feel free to let me know your thoughts on this also…

*Spoiler Alert*

OK, in the scene where Hope finally escapes and finds her daughter hiding in the hut why, oh why doesn’t the kid say something, anything, just to warn her mother that there is a deadly trap waiting to go off when someone opens the door? She obviously knows about it and I get that she’s supposed to be shaken and traumatised (I mean who knows what kind of tasks the sicko has put her through) but surely she would have responded in some way. Something inside her must have been strong enough to make her shout out, or point or do something!! Instead she just sits there and watches as her mom opens the door and gets hit head on! Jeez, like the poor woman hadn’t been through enough! lol. I know there had to be some kind of twist in the end and that it wouldn’t have been quite so dramatic to have them skip (or rather hobble) off into the sunset together but for me I just found something about that final scene a little off. What did you all think?

In my opinion ‘Broken’ is a fantastic film. When you watch it though, do me a favour and bear in mind its small budget and limited resources and I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised at what it brings to the table. Definitely not one for those of you with a weak stomach, but die hard horror fans with a love of independent movies will almost certainly enjoy.