Product Details

• Actors: Nadja Brand, Eric Colvin, Abbey Stirling, Megan Van Kerro, Chesse Daves
• Directors: Adam Mason, Simon Boyes
• Writers: Adam Mason, Simon Boyes
• Producers: Nadja Brand, Adam Mason, Ali Hopper, Eric M. Breiman, Nadya Mason
• Format: Color, DVD, Widescreen, NTSC
• Language: English
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.66:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: Unrated
• Studio: Weinstein Company
• DVD Release Date: September 25, 2007
• Run Time: 110 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (35 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B000RMJ4E4
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #33,829 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• For more information about "Broken (Unrated)" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

Studio: Genius Products Inc Release Date: 02/05/2008 Rating: Ur

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The man who is holding Hope captive wants to break her, not kill her, December 4, 2007

By 

Lawrance M. Bernabo (The Zenith City, Duluth, Minnesota) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (COMMUNITY FORUM 04)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Broken (Unrated) (DVD)

I was watching the previews on the DVD for "Black Sheep" when the trailer for "Broken" came on. In that week's rentals I had a film called "Broken," but it was an Indie film starring Heather Graham and Jeremy Sisto and not this film, which turns out to be another example of the torture porn horror film, albeit with pretensions. What is interesting is that that both "Broken" films came out in 2006 and that apparently both have just been released on DVD in the past month. This brings to mind the possibility that somebody would recommend the Heather Graham "Broken" and rent this one by mistake (Don't laugh, I recommended the Academy Award winning "American Beauty" to a co-worker once and they went to the video store and picked up "American Pie" and could not figure out why anybody would give Jason Biggs and the gang the Oscar). But the thought of people watching the wrong "Broken" was enough to make me check the other one out to see how much damage could be done to the psyche of some unsuspecting soul.

At the start of the film a title card informs us that "The slave girl is reared in an atmosphere of fear." The quote is from Harriet A. Jacobs (1813-1897), an American abolitionist who wrote the 1861 book "Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl." Written and directed by the tag team of Simon Boyes and Adam Mason, this movie is about Hope (Nadja Brand), a woman who puts her young daughter to bed one night and wakes up trapped in a coffin-like box. We know from the opening scene of the film that whatever is about to happen to Hope has happened to another woman, who clearly has been pushed beyond her limits. Consequently, given the Jacobs quote the implication is that the title of this horror film has to do with a woman's broken spirit. However, in the final analysis most of what gets broken here is physical rather than spiritual.

Hope is being held in the forest by a man (Eric Colvin), whose goal in dragging women out there is not to torture, rape, and kill them, but to help them get their minds right to being his domestic slave (unless the tending the garden bit is supposed to reference "Candide" in some way I have not yet figured out). So when his victims are required to use a pointed stick to open up an incision in their abdomens while bound by the neck to a tree while balanced on a perch nailed several feet off the ground, it might involve blood (and sometimes guts), but it is not torture but a test. One of several as the man attempts to break Hope. But unlike previous victims, who have not worked out as the man has intended, Hope has something to hang on to: the possibility that her daughter is still alive.

This is a low budget film and if you go through the DVD's special features you will find out that Boyes and Mason came up with the script as something that they could afford to film: if you shoot in the forest you do not have to worry about building sets and if one of you is married (at the time) to the lead actress that explains how you get somebody to make a movie like this when you are shooting outdoors in England during the winter. If the movie delivered more of what it promised, it would have gone over better with me, especially given that opening quote which put me in a particular frame of mind. "Broken" is different from most splatter flicks in that it takes place over several weeks, which is appropriate to the psychological dimension. Just do not expect to understand how this nut gets his victims out there in the first place, because that is not part of the game here.

For all of its shortcomings, the end game of "Broken" is probably the best part of the movie. What happens to Hope and the man, respectively, struck me as being different and quite possibly original for this type of genre, and I ended up rounding up on the movie because of that (usually the ending of a splatter flick is the weakest part, especially when they contrive some stupid way for the killer to get killed). There are other decent parts of the film as well: the parts that are suppose to revulse you in this movie do so, the cinematography does not look low-budget, and there were several nice cuts to good effect, so this is not a case of just wallowing in blood and gore. "Broken" is not the torture porn film its trailer makes it out to be, but there is enough here to recommend checking it out.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars This Was A Joke, Right?, April 15, 2011

By 

M. Jensen "The Nerve Grater" (I Am Where I Am) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Broken (Unrated) (DVD)

Description leads you to believe there's lots of torture and sadistic scenes in this movie, but the "series" of events is over in like the first 10-15 minutes of the film. Then you're treated to an hour of the most trying, dull scenes in horror film history. The people who gave this 4 or 5 stars must've never seen a decent horror flick, because this failed on the psychological front as well as the violence front. Two cringe-inducing scenes and that's it. They were pretty cool though, hence the two stars rather than one. Some annoying whimpering that we could've done without. The kidnapper was a cross between Crocodile Dundee and Indiana Jones dress wise. Personality wise, he was just dull dull dull. I dunno, man. This premise could've worked, and should have. The lead woman was sexy enough, but we never get to see her naked. Disappointing. So many scenes just rang untrue, and bringing in the 2nd girl was ridiculous. Only one person dies, and she's a minor character. I thought the ending was hilarious! This should not be in the horror section on the rental store. It should be in gardening.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Survivor Type..., February 6, 2009

By 

Bindy Sue Frønkünschtein "bigfootsalienbaby" (under the rubble) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Broken (Unrated) (DVD)

BROKEN is a brilliant movie. Made on an extremely low budget, it looks as good as / better than most of what is cranked out today. The story is simple and agonizingly well realized. However, this is about more than just a maniacal captor (Eric Colvin) and the treatment of his captive, named Hope (Nadja Brand). This is about the undying love of a mother for her daughter, and the incredible ordeals she will endure in hopes of seeing her child again. We are put in the chains and subjugated along with mum, never knowing what new horror might come next. My favorite part is when Hope finds a flower. It is the only beauty in an otherwise blighted environment. The man destroys the flower once, but Hope will not allow him to do it a second time. When another young woman is brought into the desolate camp, things get even more interesting, as she is the innocent, new fish to Hope's more hardened, experienced victim. This allows for terrifying brutality, as well as the only brief moment of humor (the potato incident). BROKEN is not for anyone who must have a happy ending at all cost. I myself am no fan of the end of this movie, as it is the final, heart-destroying insult. Still, The Hope character is so well-defined and lived by Brand that I can't give this movie less than five stars...