Comparison between the censored R-Rated DVD and the uncensored Unrated-DVD


- R-Rated: 84:54 min without credits (88:26 min with credits)
- Unrated: 86:49 min without credits (90:20 min with credits)

- 19 cuts, one censorship change through zooming in
- difference: 114,6 sec (= 1:55 min)

The movie

In 2006 Adam Mason und Simon Boyes gave the world the nice independent horrorfilm Broken which has been viewed and marketed as the British response to "Saw"/"Hostel" etc. Aside from a few similar scenes (e.g. "Saw" has a victim with a key sown into his stomach, here it is a life-saving razorblade) the movie takes an original direction and focuses on a rather psychological level.

The protagonist, meaningfully named Hope, wishes her daughter a good night and suddenly finds herself in the hands of a psychopath who helds her captive in the woods.
Contrary to his other victims before her Hope stands tough and endures weeks of being held like a slave while hoping to figure out the place he keeps her daughter and wishing to seek revenge...

The shorter version

The movie has been released in the U.S. In an R-Rated and Unrated version by Dimension Extreme. The Unrated version equates to the British DVD (aside from a different logo in the beginning) and thus seems to represent the version the director intended to make.
But to also release a version which received the MPAA's blessing almost two minutes had to be trimmed to secure an R-Rating. Since this is not an American production the Unrated version does not include the known and mostly rather unspectacular alternate material or deleted scenes. The differences are only violence cuts. Mostly shots have been removed in the beginning or end of a scene to tone down the intensity of the violence. The audio track has been carefully adjusted as well to match those cuts.

Who doesn't know the movie should not be able to spot most of the cuts but naturally the uncensored version is to be preferred.


Time specifications refer to the R-Rated DVD

00:16
The Unrated DVD shos a longer black screen before the quote appears.
4,7 sec




04:11

There are more tries of the victim to get up. The effect is delivered mostly by the nasty sounds.

9,2 sec

04:28

She sits around longer, gasping.

2,6 sec

17:47

Hope cuts longer on her stomach. We see her face grimacing in pain. Finally there's a shot of pulling up the strings on the stomach wound.

3,2 sec

17:57

The shot starts earlier, she's pulling the string.

2,3 sec

18:06

Ditto.

1,2 sec

18:12

This shot is a little longer in the end.

1,7 sec

18:13

After we saw Hope briefly at the tree in a wide shot the following close up of her stomach has been removed.

1 sec

18:22

Hope touches the wound in agony.

8,2 sec

18:29

This shot has been shortened in the end as well.
Hope gasps and touches the opened stomach wound again in close up.

9,9 sec

18:32

Several shots of Hope putting her fingers in the wound with intercuts on her painfully grimacing face.

6,8 sec

Zoom
18:32-18:38

The middle part of this shot (Hope pulls the razor blade out) is included in the R-Rated version but it's zoomed in and thus is censored. The cut on her stomach is not visible.

no time difference

R-Rated	Unrated

18:38

In the end the shot has been shortened anyway. Hope puts her other hand on the wound.

1,6 sec

18:44

The beginning of the shot where the wound is visible has been cut. The R-Rated version sets in as her hand hides it.

1,5 sec

62:07

Additional shots of Hope in the foreground as the psychopath does his business followed by two closer shots of him ripping of her tongue.

2,4 sec

79:24

The psychopath lying on the ground is a little longer.

1,3 sec

79:29

After we've seen Hope in a close up there's a shot from ground level missing in which we see the wounded head of the psycho.
The following shot of Hope has been removed due to continuity.

8,6 sec

79:31

The shot is a little longer in the end. We see the psycho lying on the ground.

1,5 sec

79:59

Hope hits the psycho five more times in the face.
The R-Rated version sets in during the last shot, when the camera has pulled up to hide the wounded head of his.

41 sec

84:35

We see Jennifer from a distance before we cut to Hope touching her heavily wounded face, screaming.

5,9 sec