[Broken]
Plot:A maniac abducts a woman and her daughter for his sick game which involves kidnapping female victims, and burying them alive for three days with a razor blade sewn into their gut. He then digs them up and hunts them for sport. When he catches them, they’re tied to a tree three feet off the ground, and the only way they can get out is to pick open the stitches on their stomach, get to the razor blade in their intestines, and cut through the rope.

Cast: Nadja Brand, Eric Colvin, Atesh Salih, Abbey Stirling.

My Thoughts:Enough already.

Review:Sure, upon reading the back of the dvd box..."Broken" sounds like an original and quite brutal horror picture, but in reality, the film takes bits of "Saw", "Wolf Creek", and "Hostel"...and mixes them all together for it's own benefit. What follows in a total yawnfest which holds no originality whatsoever. "Broken" follows a psycho who tortures people by sewing razor blades into their body. They then have to remove the blades, cut themselves free from their restraints, and try to escape. Upon which the guy hunts them down for his own sick pleasure. Where oh where have we seen this before?

Probably in about just close to every horror film released in the past 2 years. It seems that a new sub-genre is slowly but surely being created within the horror genre. I like to call it "pretty girl torture films". Basically these films consist of a good looking woman, a total wacko, and some torturistic behavior inflicted by him upon her. Films of this nature include "Captivity", "Mummy Maniac", etc. Films where there really is no plot except for crazy guy tortures hot girl for 70 minutes until she escapes which sets off 20 minutes of chase and hide sequences upon which a final battle ensues between the crazy dude and the woman who's been pushed to the edge and will probably need to see a shrink for the rest of her life after surviving her ordeal.

Films like this are getting way too common, and while films like "Saw" and to an extent "Hostel" actually surround all of these things with a story, and pick on the guys just as much if not more than the girls, films like "Broken" seem to just want to corner the market on the audience of men who like to see a woman similar to the one they couldn't get back in High School tortured and forced into sadomasochistic situations. Which is exactly what "Broken" does, which is why I found it so boring.

The film was far too obvious, the villain is not interesting in the least, and basically there's no plot whatsoever except the crazy survivalist dude picking on her and her pleading over and over again for him to release her. An act which seems to only help guys like this get their sick pleasures. We're never even given the slightest of motives as to why this guy is doing all of this. Sure, we can come up with a ton of theories such as classic sociopath, ordinary psycho, mommy issues, bad drugs, bad childhood, and on and on...but Mason never gives the viewer a slightest inkling as to why his villain is torturing this woman.

To make matters even more sadistic, the villain of the film also decides to drag the woman's oldest daughter into the mix, sort of like one big "torturestock" event...where she can watch him threaten to kill and mentally abuse her daughter. Pretty much anything to cause the woman all sorts of emotional pain. I do have to give "Broken" a little bit of credit though. The film does offer up two really twisted scenes which involve a tongue and a booby trap, and that's pretty much all I'm gonna say about that. Overall though, two amazing scenes of twisted gore and dark behavior don't make up for close to 90 minutes of repetitive behavior, a lack of story, and an overall extremely low entertainment factor. "Broken" is a real waste of time, and not to mention quite offensive.

Positives:Two scenes which stand out for their really surprising nature.

Negatives:Bad story, lack of entertainment value, no real plot structure or point to anything happening in the film.

Overall:If you're having trouble sleeping these days, "Broken" should knock you right out.





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