DVD review: Break (2009)

Sarah Carter (Lili Schackert) has just been dumped by her boyfriend, so have her friends Rose Burns (Esther Maaß), Anna (Marina Anna Eich),  and Clare Mullins  (Thelma Buabeng) take her along for a trip from Washington to Bellingham to spend the weekend camping in the backwoods in Glacier Rocks. The warm weather and some cold beer let the clique quickly forget their big-city problems. They run into rednecks Phil (Sebastian Badenberg) and and his partner Samuel (Ralph Willmann) who are brutal and sadistically inhuman. Break is written and directed by Matthias Olof Eich, it´s a german entry in the backwoods horror subgenre and what a entry it is. Good atmosphere, nice choice of setting and the landscapes are truly first class. It´s professionally shot and edited, the soundtrack is good, the cast is fairly good they actors seem to be professionals and are for the most part believable. The pacing it a bit slow in the beginning as the first half of the film is meant for you to care about these girls but it´s neber boring. Break has sadism, cruelty, violence, rape and sexual humiliation as rhe two bloodthirsty killers degrades women literally like a piece of meat that can be taken and gutted at will.
There are some really nice looking gore, a mix of practical and visual fx. The highlights in terms of gore are an arrow in the eye, a shovel in the head, a knife run through the waist and two severed feet hanging by a rope, which also adorn the cover.
This review is based on the region 2 DVD released by NSM Records, it´s uncut and the viewer can choose between german och english audio.
Rating: 6½ out of 7. I must say that I do not understand why this is labeled as an amateur film. The look of the film is professional and indistinguishable from other direct-to-video productions. While the story offers nothing new it´s well implemented. I highly recommend this film for fans of Backwoods horror and of german amateur productions.

/JL