Broken on DVD (2006)

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Mr G from Edinburgh, Scotland. , 09/09/2007

Whoever wrote this must have broke their pen & scribbled the script with some crayons. A woman held hostage in some woods (handily lit up at night with added smoke machine effects) by a nutter who seems about as scary as Mr Bean.

There are some brutal scenes but they are more screw your face up than turn the lights back on. The pace is slow & I've seen better acting in porn movies. I don't get the Saw comparison either. The only task I saw her undertaking was how to keep his garden filled with some nice veg. No, really!

Dull all the way, the only good bit is near the end where she beats his head in with a pipe, which by the end you'll want to do to the entire cast & crew for wasting your time. Rubbish!

  16 out of 19 people found this review helpful

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SLCpunk [Highly rated reviewer] , 18/09/2007

The trailer of this looked amazing and maybe got my hopes too high for this low budget film.

The film has a good premise and throws you into an interesting sitiuation. However it just never really got into its stride. My main issue is that the 'bad guy' had no on screen presence and simply wasnt scary. He came across as a childrens BBC version of the killer in 'Wolf Creek'.

Yeah the film was low budget but never really felt it apart from some of the acting (not all). The special effects were awesome and the cinematography really good. Throughout you just get the feeling that these guys just had no idea the direction they wanted to take the film in so it comes across a bit diluted.

The best part of this DVD is the making of section which i found really insightful and even though i didnt like the film that much, i gained huge respect for the makers.

  12 out of 16 people found this review helpful

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JAMIOUSE from PILMOOR, YORK [Highly rated reviewer] , 03/09/2007

Broken is a low budget British horror in a similar style to SAW, the basic premese is that a women is kidnapped and forced to endure various tasks before she is allowed to live with her captore. The opening 20 minutes are pretty gorey and have some great special effects. By the end of the film though you do kind of wonder why she was kidnapped though and how the captore abducted her. Especially as he lives in the woods.

As a whole it's not a bad film, the opening minutes are hard going and pretty nasty.

  10 out of 16 people found this review helpful

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A customer from UK , 19/08/2007

The tension never lets up in this brilliantly atmospheric and chilling movie. The writing is tight and the low-budget grittiness of the production seems to add to the viewer's sense of the victim's ordeal.

Overall, if you like a disturbing yet intelligent watch with a dollop of gore and no hope of a happy ending then this is for you.

  8 out of 9 people found this review helpful

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A customer from Coulsdon, Surrey , 11/02/2008

Having viewed pretty much all the genres of horror film and been comfortable with the large majority of them, this one sits outside anything I've ever seen.

I therefore don't agree with the majority of reviews that I've read about this film - it is simply a nasty piece of work, and has no redeeming features whatsoever.

It has no point, no plot, and is seriously gratuitous and unpleasant.

As for 'being based on a true story', what a load of rubbish.

Who in their right mind would behave like this? Sorry, someone has seriously lost the plot, as well as leaving it out altogether.

  1 out of 1 person found this review helpful

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A customer from Dilwyn , 29/07/2008

Yes it's british, yes it is low budget, yes it is set in a strangely lit wood. The making of documentary extra gives a clue to the tortured birth of this film (undergoing a year of re editing) but that said I quite enjoyed it mainly for the gore effects which aren't bad and which I havene't seen portrayed in a film before.

I would struggle to suggest who would want to watch a film like this...gorehounds for the first 20 mins and feminists/pyschoanalysts for the rest? Both would find the film disjointed but would probably enjoy their respective parts. I really had no idea of the direction that this film was going to take and it is that that kept me rooted to my seat for the running time. I finished watching the movie and had many more questions that I wanted to ask (how was woman kidnapped?, why was man iin woods?etc etc) so I guess that is a good thing...If I had not watched the making of documentary I would probably be slagging this movie off but the directors are both very candid about their zero budget and I think it is a triumph that they have produced a movie that most people will find very strange but one that hints of some very good quality indeed. Probably not a date movie.

  1 out of 1 person found this review helpful

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