Gimly Monocle (firstruleofmethclub) What started out feeling like a bad, British response to Wolf Creek, ended up feeling like a bad, British response to the already bad, American films; Captivity and Amusement.Bizarrely, while doing some research for this film, I found nothing but praise. It was low- budget, which is usually enough to find that everyone hates it, whereas I don't. In this case, it was a strange reversal, I hated it (not because of its cheap production values) because it was boring. The film is supposedly based on a "true story", but listening to an interview with director Adam Mason, it turns out this "true story" goes thusly; There was once a killer who dumped his victims in the woods. This movie is in the woods. Also the killer has characteristics that many other real life murderers could have. Yep, "could" have. So it's "based on a true story" in the same way that Titanic is "based" on the life and times of Marco Polo... You know... 'Cause there was a boat.I'd just like to reiterate that this film was woefully boooring. Because I believe that it's probably the worst thing that a film can be. Movies are, after all, filed under the category of "entertainment", so what sort of entertainment is it if it's not in the lest bit entertaining!? There's a couple of okay-ish things about it. The killer's not too clichéd, although he's so obviously based on Jigsaw, and not any real life killer. Also I think that happy endings are a cop out, this film does not contain one, so points there. But honestly, when you only have 2 characters, it'd be nice to see some damn character development!There's very, very little to this movie, so already I'm running out of things to say. This is not to somehow be mistaken for a compliment. Broken was just plain bad. Ending and beginning aside, there's nothing at all to it, other than annoyance. Ridiculous amounts of filler, it made me wonder if the guys behind it had any idea what they were going to do when they started rolling the cameras, it seemed more like "Ahhh, crap uh, um, you don't like this guy Ms. ActressLady, just run with it! And you! You're scared, so, be scared? Scream, yes, just scream, that can be your entire role for the next 20 minutes, only scream!"Boring. Boring. Broken. The only reason I didn't feel this film was a complete waste of time, was because I stopped paying attention half way through and started drawing a puppy. So it was only a waste of half my time.11%-Gimly

Woodyanders The central premise has promise: Single mother Hope (a fine and personable performance by Nadja Brand) gets abducted by a cruel and cunning mysterious man (well played with chilling understatement by Eric Colvin) who holds her captive in a remote woodland camp and tortures her in order to bend the poor lass to his merciless will. While writers/directors Adam Mason and Simon Boyes succeed with creating and sustaining an unwaveringly grim and harsh tone as well as make good use of the beautiful, yet desolate and isolated sylvan setting, they crucially fail to generate much in the way of tension and don't develop the character of Hope thoroughly enough for the viewer to have any actual emotional investment in her miserable plight. Granted, the convincing graphic gore and moments of sadistic violence pack a nasty wallop, but the sluggish pacing, talky script, and generally flat execution make this picture a rather tedious chore to sit through. However, the filmmakers still deserve a few extra points for avoiding the usual teens-in-peril formula, an earnest (if inert) attempt at gritty realism, and, most of all, the genuinely startling and unexpected surprise bummer nihilistic ending. It's just that this movie doesn't have the essential punch or vigor it needs to cook the way that it should. Erik Wilson's stark cinematography provides an appropriately dark and gloomy look. The spare rattling score by Emma Holand and Gavin Miller does the flesh-crawling trick. A strictly so-so flick.

jery-tillotson-1 I hope our movie makers paid actress Nadja Brand some decent money because they sure to hell got their money's worth from her thespian and physical attributes. The camera catches huge close-ups of her bulging eyes, her moist nostrils, her flabby stomach, her matted hair. Most of all, they arrange for her to scream, shriek, slobber, groan, whimper, gasp and scream again through most of this grim, depressed tale of male monster who enjoys capturing women and hiding them out in the woods. To make things even worse, they bring in a SECOND female victim. And then she begins to out-scream the first woman! On and on she shrieks until finally even the psycho can't take it, so what does a good maniac do when the screaming won't stop: he cuts her tongue out. Hysterically, her only reaction is to glare at him--as if p... off that she can't shriek anymore. The Making of the movie shows how hideous the wintry conditions were while filming this dark saga on a tiny little budget. We viewers can only imagine the horrors it took to make this B-movie travesty--what with the nightmarish weather and the non-stop screaming of our female actresses.

Indyrod Here's the simple plot summary..."After dating a wonderful man, Hope comes back home, sees her daughter Jennifer and goes to sleep. She wakes-up in the woods in a box in a hole, and a psychopath, fighting to survive for more than forty days and asking information about her daughter to the stranger."It says its based on a true story, and wow, what an ordeal that must have been, because the movie is extremely nasty and disturbing. The short back story of Hope was an add on according to the filmmakers, they were going to start the movie with Hope waking up in a box in a grave, and you don't know who anybody is, which I actually think would have even been better. But moreorless, you still don't know who anybody is, nor do you really care, because this movie is about survival against extremely long odds. The psychopath woodsman, apparently is kidnapping women and putting them through extreme tests to hopefully for him, find one that can be his companion. After waking up, the women are placed hanging on their tiptoes tied by the neck to a tree, and a razor blade has been implanted in their stomachs. The object is, they have to dig out the razor blade through the stitches, cut the rope, and then they are free to pass his other tests. For Hope, the tests don't go much further than that, because the woodsman is impressed with her, and she learns how to cope with the madman, until she figures out a way to escape. The whole beginning credits get the movie off to a very excruciating start, as a previous woman is scene attempting to dig out the razor blade to free herself, with her guts falling out of her belly, and then pleading for the woodsman to kill her. She grabs the trigger of the shotgun in her face, and pulls the trigger, and wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeee, we are off to the races. It seems the woodsman doesn't actually think he is killing anybody, because he gives them a chance to survive, and if they don't, well, it's their fault for being so weak and stupid. While Hope is being held captive, the woodsman brings in another woman who does not stop crying and begging, which irritates even Hope. Simple enough, he takes a nice long hunting knife and cuts out her tongue and vocal cords. Yea boy, that will fix that problem every time. Wonder if that would have saved one of my marriages?? I'm talking about the wife of course. This movie has been compared to SAW, which is totally misleading. Nothing about the two are similar, except for maybe the tree and razor blade thing, which Jigsaw should have thought of. This movie is very good, very depressing, and even the ending which looks promising, delivers a gut punch that is totally unexpected all the way around. You see, all through this, Hope is concerned more for her daughter than herself, because her daughter disappeared with her, and the woodsman only says her daughter was too weak. The movie is never boring, and very interesting as this strange bizarre woodsman, seems to be only looking for a mate. It does not fall into that idiot genre name torture porn, which I hate, because after the initial scenes, it comes down to a cat and mouse game, with the mouse slowly figuring out how to trap the cat. This is the one with everybody saying how terrible the commentary is, and for only the few minutes I listened to it so far, it does seem to be very annoying.