Broken (2006)

A low-budget UK horror that fits into the current vogue of so-called torture porn, but made with some panache. A young lady goes out for a date, leaving her daughter in the hands of a babysitter. The date ges well, she kisses her daughter good night, goes to bed....and wakes up buried in a coffin. She than has to prove her mettle by not only completing a gruesome task but also by survviving with her survival instinct intact. She finds herself the prisoner of an unnamed survivalist and is given chores, such as the washing up and tending a makeshift garden, with harsh consequences for any failure to perform these tasks well. She tries and fails to escape, all the time asking about her daughter, whom she is led to believe is dead. Eventually another girl is brought in, but one without the same instinct for self-preservation. Eventually a successful escape is made, but the survivalist hgas one more trick up his sleeve.

In the wrong hands this could have been a sleazy affair, but the writers make it an interesting experience, as we see Hope (the initial girl) adapt herself, and even has a certain power over her captor. The survivalist himself is an interesting character, in that he seems to have a moral code of his own - he never kills any of his 'wards' (there are plenty who don't pass the first tests) and never forces himself on the women. The only time sex rears its head is when Hope instigates it, as a prelude to an escape attempt. When the survivalist is forced to kill the other girl, it is he that is Broken, and not hope. The film looks like ending in optimistic moment, but that is cruelly snatched away in a nihilistic ending that leaves you feeling quite empty. This actually had the power of making me question these types of film, not that I believe that to have been the makers purpose. An intelligent gore film