Breaking Her Will

Bill Zebub Productions

R1 DVD

This rather odd independent production is difficult to classify, containing as it does a number of themes that could be regarded as cinema contraband. As pornography it is only mildly titillating, not hardcore, so it can’t really be called torture porn. Even calling it “torture” is overdoing it as the torture is mostly mental rather than physical. It abounds in humiliation and bondage but its main themes are psychological.

The plot is fairly conventional for this type of film. A young woman is kidnapped, tied to a cross, gagged and tortured to turn her into a submissive slave. Her captor is a socially inadequate, mentally disturbed young man who gets most of his inspiration for his torture and domination scenarios from the Internet. These don’t hold up for long in reality, though.

“I want to rape you – I don’t want to have consensual sex”

He tells her a fanciful story about being a “trainer” of girls for a powerful underground white slavery ring. He “trains” her by a cycle of torture, discomfort, punishment and the occasional reward. Gradually the girl comes to realise that the only way she will get out alive is by becoming submissive to him and to persuade him to keep her for his own rather than hand her on the “slavers”. The unreality of the environment in which she is kept helps her make this decision.

The young man now has what he thought he wanted – a submissive girl. But now what? Somehow her total submission is dissatisfying. She will soon see through his story about the slave ring. Without the thrill of domination his life is again missing something. He kidnaps another girl but his carefully staged gang rape scenario goes wrong and she dies in front of the first girl. What can he do now?

The psychological permutations of the film are interesting, but I have to say the film is not particularly well produced. Most of the film takes place in a basement and there doesn’t appear to be much space since we get the same point of view most of the time. The sound leaves much to be desired and the music is inappropriate. The acting, however, is good and saves the film from being just exploitative trash. Overall I thought the film was interesting and could only have been made by an independent with a bit of guts. It’s just that it could have been so much more.

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This review will appear in Volume 3 No.2 of the digital and print edition of Synergy Magazine.

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