Broken Was Promoted as
the Grown-Up Answer to Torture Horror
Unfortunately Broken
throws in sufficient varying themes, including female power
and post traumatic stress, to confuse the whole thing.
Written
by The Horror Czar (BHM Editor Don Sumner) October 25, 2007
Release: 2006
(U.S. DVD 2007) Written and Directed by: Simon Boyes and Adam Mason
Starring:
Nadja Brand as Hope Eric Colvin as The Man
Promotion and advertising can play a significant role in
influencing buying and viewing behaviors. Case in point: I
read a certain quote from an unnamed
reviewer in an advertisement emblazened across the marquis of a website
(This one, in fact...) that said “’Broken’ makes
‘Saw’ look like a children’s
movie.” I hope that reviewer got some kind of kickback,
because that quote was enough to drive me to Best Buy to purchase a
copy for my very own. Damn my susceptibility.
Broken begins with a woman waking up trapped inside
a small, dark, damp wooden box. Clearly, she is surprised by her
predicament and proceeds to scream, cry, pant and pound. Finally, the
terrified woman breaks free from her binding box and crawls away from
the site, only to be clobbered in the face with the barrel of a
shotgun.
Our hapless heroine awakens a second time, only to find herself tied to
a tree by her neck, her weight supported by a teetering see-saw perched
on a block of wood. She begins picking at a stitched-up wound on her
abdomen with a stick (I didn’t understand why she was doing
that at first…kind of dumb) and pulls all of the crude
stitches out…then reaches her hand into the wound and starts
digging. Very gross.
Finally the goal is
achieved…the woman extracts a razor blade from the hole in
her gut and cuts away at the rope around her neck. Finally, the rope is
severed and she falls to the ground, but her entrails have escaped the
stomach cut and intestines are intertwined with sticks and leaves.
Suddenly, a Crocodile Dundee type guy (Erik Colvin) walks up to her,
puts a gun to her face and asks her a simple question: “Do
you want to go on?” The distraught woman, insides spread
across the forest, replies “No.” So, he shoots her.
Then we meet Hope (Nadja
Brand), a London girl on a blind date. The date goes well, and she
excitedly relays the details to the babysitter of her young daughter.
Then she goes to bed.
Unfortunately for Hope she awakes in the same predicament as the woman
in the opening scene. There are two differences in Hope’s
outcome from the previous victims: One, her guts do not fall out of the
opening. Two, Hope‘s answer to “the
question” is a resounding “Yes!”
– she wants to ensure the safety of her young daughter.
It’s hard to say
whether she was better off with her affirmative answer. What follows is
for Hope is that she becomes Dundee’s chained slave, cleaning
pots and pans at the forest camp of Dundee-guy, getting slapped around
a bit and ultimately being beaten and maimed for any small
transgression.
The trouble with Broken
is that it doesn’t know, from one moment to the next, what it
wants to be. At times it is a shock/torture horror film reminiscent of
the Hostel
or Saw
series. At others it seems to be revenge flick ala I
Spit on your Grave. There are also strong elements
of a psychological treatment of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder as
the victim seems to have caring for the aggressor mixed with
the hopeless breaking of human
spirit that one may see in Shindler’s List
or Diary of Anne Frank. This final element makes it
either ironic or stupidly cheesy that her name happens to be
“Hope”.
In the end Broken presents all of these things, and
therefore none of them. The Dundee character is never actually
developed, which would be alright if he was portrayed as a random
raving lunatic…but he is not. I tried and tried to piece
together what his deal is, but to no avail.
Whether you are a lover of torture horror or an aficionado of tales of
Post Traumatic Stress, Broken has something for you
– but in either case I imagine you will leave disappointed. Questions
or comments about Broken? Contact us!
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spirit that one may see in Shindler’s List
or Diary of Anne Frank. This final element makes it
either ironic or stupidly cheesy that her name happens to be
“Hope”. 
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