Review: Broken (2006)

This is a rollercoaster of pure nastiness. It’s horrific, uncomfortable, but not devoid of… Hope.

From the tense, claustrophobic opening scene, we know what this is going to be. A woman wakes up trapped in a box. Upon freeing herself, she is rewarded by a blow to the face with a rifle-butt. 

She re-awakens to find herself precariously balancing on a log and some rocks above the ground, bound to a tree by a rope around her neck. Across her belly are some stitches, which she pulls free with a stick. She reaches around in her stomach and finds what she’s looking for, a razor, which she uses to cut herself free at the expense of her guts pouring out from the wound.

Her captor stands over her and asks if she wants to go on, to which she replies, “No.” He shoots her.

A few weeks later, we meet Hope, who finds herself in the same mess as the woman in the opening scene. She looks across to see the previous victim’s fate. I could feel my fingernails digging into my palms as I willed her to get free.

Once free, her captor nurses her more or less back to health and deems her worthy to be her his slave. The whole time you’re hoping she get her revenge.

What makes these characters interesting is the lack of verbal communication between the two of them. “The Man’s” quiet control of her gives the puzzling and ominous impression that he could do something gruesome to her at any moment. So what happens when another potential pet is introduced? The additional character adds more tension and possibility. Will these two women get free together or is there no escape?

As you root for Hope to get through this, you can’t help but feel that the psycho-survivalist is always one step ahead. You find yourself thinking of what you’d do in her place, trapped at the beck and call of a monster.

Despite some glimmers of hope (the choice of name – “Hope” was surely no accident) this low-budget effort by writer/directors Adam Mason and Simon Boyes is pretty hard-going and relentless. The scenes are well crafted and the actors’ performances are credible, but in the end, what you have is a shock and gore gut-punch that will leave you watching the final scenes through the gaps between your fingers.

• Buy Broken (2006) on DVD

- Eliza Dashwood (@cityferret)

Dir: Adam Mason and Simon Boyes Stars: Nadja Brand, Eric Colvin