just watch it!

A Brilliant Conflict

Blending excellent reporting and strong storytelling, this is a disturbing film truly stranger than fiction

Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

Why are there such good reviews for this film? It was dreadful.As mentioned, all the characters speak English with a stilted German accent while the film tries to portray itself in ..Canada or USA? Why? They even make fun of a 'German' character. Just set it in Germany! We have our politically correct mixed race band of girls - they seem obnoxious but it may just be the weird Germans speaking English supposed to be in Canada...There is no character development, every idiotic thing in the horror film book is done (the girls get the upper hand and drop all the weapons to struggle away while injured).Poor.

Break stats as close friends Rose Burns (Esther Maaß), Anna Cambright (Marina Anna Eich) & Clare Mullins (Thelma Buabeng) arrive at their other friend Sarah Carter's (Lili Schackert) house, after Sarah's boyfriend just dumped her Rose feels that it would be good for all four of them to go camping in a peaceful & picturesque forest. The four girls head for a beauty spot known as Glacier Rock, on the way they stop to ask directions from a fat mute guy named Phil (Sebastian Badenberg) who just creeps them all out, eventually the four friends find Glacier Rock & set up camp for the night. The next morning & Phil has found the campsite & along with his sadistic psycho friend Sam (Ralph Willmann) the pair attack the girls, they beat them, humiliate them, assault them & intend to kill them all but Sarah & Rose manage to escape but with the psychotic Sam in pursuit & Rose badly injured getting away with their lives is going to be hard...This German production was edited, written & directed by Matthias Olof Eich this is your basic Wrong Turn (2003) backwoods brutality teen slasher rip-off, I can't say I hated Break but at the same time I didn't love it as it's nothing particularly original & does tend to lapse into cliché & predictability. At just over 80 minutes Break doesn't outstay it's welcome & has a fair pace with the first forty minutes scene setting & build-up with the second forty minutes none stop sadism, gore, death, abuse & lots of chasing. There's a certain level of brutality & sadism in Break that I liked, the scene in which Anna is seen tied to a tree naked bloody & bruised with Sam pulling his trousers back up having just bum raped her is memorable & sleazy, these psychos seem to enjoy hunting, raping, killing & stealing whatever they can from their victims & although the killers have absolutely no background or motive beyond that they can these guy's don't really need any. I appreciated that the final chase was actually a car pursuit rather than on foot, a car chase in a film such as this is unusual. The script takes itself very seriously & tries to disturb with severed limbs, girls raped, beaten & tortured & while the kills aren't as gory or over the top as some films they remain reasonably effective.Apparently called Break - No Mercy, Just Pain! in it's native Germany it's surprising the lengths it goes to try & convince that it's set in the US despite being shot in Germany with a German cast & crew. Character's are seen reading USA Today, the cars featured are deliberately US makes & one guy even says he's visiting from Germany. Why not just set the film in Germany? Like it would make any significant difference. Another strange aspect about Break is that all the dialogue spoken is in English but the actor's used are clearly German, it sounds like Germans trying to speak English written by a German in American accents & it gives Break a certain surreal vibe that I did quite like actually. There's some good gore here, a few body parts are hacked up, lots of blood splatter & ripped-out intestines are seen, a pair of severed feet are shown, there's a cool slit throat at the start where the camera is placed sideways to the actress & the blood spray covers the lens, people are shot, a guy has a shovel embedded in his head & someone is shot with arrows. Break is pretty bloody actually although maybe not quite as graphic as some.With a supposed budget of about €300,000 Break looks nice enough, the scenery is very green as you would expect from a film set mainly in a forest, apparently filmed in Oberammergau in Bavaria in Germany despite being set entirely in the US. The acting is pretty good to be fair, the two main leads do a fine job & the main psycho manages to to creepy & just plain freaky. The only negative is the black girl Buabeng who is truly awful & I was really, really happy to see her character die.Break isn't an original film, it's virtually a scene for scene remake of Wrong Turn but it's decent enough for what it is & it has a certain sadism & grim nastiness that I liked. It's well made too despite the awkwardly written dialogue, the strange title Break either refers to Sarah's relationship breakup or the fact that the girls are on a short break away from the city or it could mean both. You decide.

Having never heard of Break before, I didn't expect much. But in the end I found it a satisfying little movie. Four girlfriends get together for a hiking trip in the Canadian mountains and run across two sadistic redneck killers intent on ruining their day. But these women don't go down without a fight. I'm a horror buff and would be remiss not to admit this movie has some clichés and does follow the format of films like "Wrong Turn" and the like. However, you do learn to love these women quickly and especially feel the bond between Rose (Esther Maaß) and Sarah (Lili Schackert.) It takes 40 minutes for the gore to begin but that time is used wisely for character development. Once the action starts it doesn't stop and there are truly gory and sadistic moments worthy of the genre. The scenery is beautiful and the actresses gave stellar performances (particularly Maaß)and the film was over before I knew it. And I was pleased with the outcome without it being cheesy or entirely predictable. So on a boring, rainy day give this little film a try. I don't think you'll be disappointed. It's better than most out there these days!

The girlfriends Anna (Marina Anna Eich), Clare (Thelma Buabeng), Rose (Esther Maaß) and Sarah Carter (Lili Schackert) travel from Washington to Bellingham to spend the weekend camping in the backwoods in Glacier Rocks. They meet a gentle German hiker and they unsuccessfully ask for direction to the retarded redneck Phil (Sebastian Badenberg), but they find the paradisiac spot. On the next morning, they are hunted by the sadistic rednecks Phil and his partner Samuel (Ralph Willmann) and they have to fight to survive."Break" is another absurd and sadistic slasher that follows the style of "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre", "Wrong Turn", "Simon Says" and other films of this sub-genre of horror. The actresses and actors have very realistic performances, and the rape sequence is impressive; but the plot excessively uses the clichés of the genre. The most irritating is the invulnerability of Samuel that is shot twice and still tracks the girls; and Rose that walks with an open fracture and helps Sarah. My vote is three.Title (Brazil): "Viagem Macabra" ("Macabre Voyage")