The film wastes no time in setting the mood, opening with a woman waking in a casket, blood everywhere, fighting to escape her entombment. Eventually she escapes only to get knocked out and when she awakes she’s tied by the neck to a tree, balancing on a stick of wood. If she slips, she’s gonna strangle herself.. so how does she escape? Seems there’s a cut on her stomach that’s been stitched up, and stashed inside her belly is a razor blade. Fetch the blade, cut yourself free and run for the hills! Yeah, not so simple. I feel like I’ve just given away a good part of the movie, but this all happens in the first 5 minutes! Like I said, the film wastes no time getting started.

The main story centers around Hope (Nadja Brand) and how she deals with being in that same situation. Don’t worry, we only have a tiny amount of back story on Hope before she ends up in a casket, just enough to let you know she’s single and has a daughter. Turns out the casket/razor blade bit is just a test to see if the victim is strong enough to be made into a slave. Yep, the guy setting this up is just a sick freak in the woods who wants someone to tend his garden. I’m not making that up.

What follows is a test of wills, Hope’s vs. the wacko in the woods. Will he break her spirit or will she prevail? With a horror movie the ending isn’t always a sure thing and obviously I’m not going to tell you much more. I will say that I appreciated the blend of psychological horror with graphic horror. Usually movies will go one way or the other, but Broken does both and does them pretty well.

So why only 3 stars? Hard to pinpoint, but two things immediately come to mind. One is technical… the movie is shot on video instead of film, and while that doesn’t always bother me this time it made itself apparent, which took me out of the scene. I think it was a lighting issue. For 90% of the time it was spot on and looked just fine, but for 10% it was off a bit and made me feel like I was watching a TV show instead of a movie. Minor, but it contributed to the overall feel. Another thing was the ending, I just didn’t like it. Obviously I can’t say why, but it didn’t work for me. There were a couple of obvious directions to go and I think they choose poorly. That’s gonna be a personal thing though as I guarantee about half of the folks watching it will think they chose the right path, I just happen to disagree.

It’s worth watching though, and very much worth a rental. Just don’t compare it to Saw, they are nothing alike other than the initial puzzle on how to escape the tree.

A note on Nadja Brand.. she’s excellent! Her performance was spot on, no complaints at all. I have to imagine that standing in woods with fake blood on your face while some guys with video cameras tell you to act terrified is a tough thing to do, and she does it perfectly. Her screams aren’t overdone, her facial expressions seem realistic, and her body language is correct. I was quite impressed and hope to see her in something else soon.