Customer Reviews

Borderland

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(15)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I'm not a big fan of the Horrorfest films, even though I wish I was. I saw a lot of 2006's (I only liked `The Hamiltons' of what I saw... and it was just 'ok') and I think Borderland is the only one I've watched for the year 2007. Borderland is definitely the best of all the Horrorfest that I've seen so far. Now don't go hitting that 'BUY' button just yet...hear me out first.

Borderland is 'inspired' on a true event that happened down in Mexico. Basically a drug bust happened, cops found human remains in cauldrons and mass graves. The drug guys said human sacrifices to their God (or whatever it was) made them invisible (I'm guessing to make it easier to smuggle drugs). So saying that, I'm sure you can tell where this movie is going, but I'll continue.

So we got 3 teenage boys that are about to head to college. Before they do, they want to head to Mexico for a few days and party and find some hookers. In doing so, they come across a whore house with a pretty bartendress and one of our boys falls for her. Another one actually falls for a hooker, which has a kid, which his friend paid 80 bucks for him to sleep with. Now you are probably thinking, "OH MAN THEY ARE HARLOTS! They are evil and MAKING these guys fall in love with them by magic or voooodoooo" Nope, your wrong. They are just idiots. So later on, they decide to hang out at a Fair with the bartendress and her cousin, do some shrooms and weed, and go for some rides. After awhile, our boy who fell in love with the actual hooker wins her a stuff animal and decides to leave the group and go back to the whore house and give it to her. They let him go (alone) and on the way there, he gets picked up by some bad dudes, and doesn't make it to see his new love. The rest of the crew start looking for him, to only find out that they are now involved with a pretty bad gang of drug lords. Will they be able to rescue their friend and get out of Mexico in one piece? Well... it's a Horrorfest film so what do you think?!

There wasn't a lot of gore, which doesn't have to be a bad thing, but what gore there was, was good. I liked the beginning with the cop. There were hot chicks here and there (I liked the main bad dude's girl... YUM), but no nudity (see through white shirt on main bad dudes girl though!). The acting was ok. But seriously, the 3 guys were well into their late 20's, yet they were supposed to be teenagers getting ready to go to college? (*EDIT*..ok I'm guessing they were in their early twenties since they just graduated college, and I'm guessing heading to medical school or something like that). Also one of the henchmen had a dome that could've held two brains. Seriously he looked like an old comic character called Leader that the Incredible Hulk used to fight. I would NOT want to be head butted by that guy. And another main bad guy looked like a psychotic mix between Ice-T, Ludacris, and Pedro (from Napoleon Dynamite). Weird. Oh and Sean Astin (the guy who played Rudy in 'Rudy', and he played Sam, the hobbit that was Frodo's lover in 'Lord of the Rings') played a pretty good role here. The funny thing is though... it seemed like he filmed this and his part in '50 First Dates' at the same time. Because he had a backwards hat, a sea shell necklace, and a tank top on....AND...he spoke with a lisp sometimes.

In the end, I would recommend a rent, but only if there isn't much out there to watch.

Borderland was a great movie. One of the better of horrorfest '07. Great cast and presents a few surprises, even for the jaded horror movie buff. Overall, definitely worth checking out.

Another year and another set of DVDs from the Afterdark Horrorfest. Last years crop had two or three films I was interested in and the films this year didn't seem to be my thing, until I had heard of Borderland and the true story behind the movie. If you look up the story on the internet you can find a fascinating story of a cult of drug peddlers that killed over sixty-three men in voodoo ritual that involved sodomy, torture and dismemberment. Mixing with the criminal nature of the cult and to me its fascinating. And Zev Berman the filmmaker behind Borderland was just as fascinated with the story integrating it into his own Hostel storyline. On the DVD He states how he became involved with the story after he and some friends were pulled over trying to enter Mexico with some voodoo paraphenalia decorating their bus.
The story as it goes is basic horror film fare, very much in the vein of Hostel in a way. Three friends bound for college go on a road trip for the vices that they can find on the border between Mexico and America. On friend Ed hooks up with a bartender Valeria and the group goes off to eat Mushrooms and party at a carnival. Therein a member decides to split after the trip starts going bad and on the way back to the hotel He gets kidnapped by the cultists who are looking for an American to use in their ritual. When the remaining friends awake the next day they go in search of their missing friend and instead find a town where the cops don't much care when people go missing (after a policeman was dismembered alive in the opening) and cult members wanting them to disappear.
Like I said the film is very reminiscent of other horror films plotlines. The three friends themselves follow very generic and cliched stereotypes with the badboy hardcase, the sensitive hero, and the goofy young religious type who enters the picture with a target on his chest. The acting is servicable at best meeting the demands of the movie and my only other complaint is against the director using an overcranked camera to film most of it. But still the cult itself was a fasciinating thing that added depth to the movie. These weren't the business men of Hostel or the cannibal rednecks of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre but a real group of disturbed people that followed a charasmatic leader in doing the most horrible things possible believing that they were invincible to the world. This part of the movie worked for the better of the movie.
As for the DVD itself its put together well with the commentary and a twenty minute making of feature. The best feature of the disc was featurette with the lead detective who investigated the initial disappearnce of the American college student that lead to investigation of the cult. They intersperse his commentary with video shot of the actual cult members being interogated while they lead police around the ranch where the murders took place and dig up bodies. One strange thing, they change the name of the victim while you can easily find the mans name on the internet. Still check out the movie. Its easily one of the better offerings from the second Afterdark series this year.

Horrorfest 2007 did not make it to the Zenith City, so I had to wait for last year's offerings to come out on DVD to be able to check them out, going the one a night route this time around. One of the interesting things about going to see the original 8 films 2 die 4 in the theater was the order in which I saw the films, since that colors the veiwer's perceptions of each film. The fact that the first one I saw last year, "Reincarnation," was the best of the bunch certainly affected what I thought of Horrorfest 2006 overall (It was not until I watched the schlock horror films that Lionsgate released direct to DVD during the past couple of years that I had to admit Horrorfest really does represent the cream of the crop, albeit during a period of extended drought). Anyhow, to figure out the order of these films I went to the official Horrorfest website and arranged these eight films in the order they appeared there. That means "Borderland" takes the lead off position, and history might repeat itself because it was the film I heard mentioned most often as being the best of the second round of offerings.

"Borderland" begins with a group of Mexican drug runners going to town on a pair of Mexican police officers, one of who survives the ordeal. This is a prologue to the main part of the film, where three Texas University students travel to a Mexican border town as a last fling before graudation. Henry (Jake Muxworthy), Phil (Rider Strong), and Ed (Brian Presley) have a series of misadventures south of the border that end up crossing the paths of both the lovely Valeria (Martha Higareda) and the drug cult. So it takes a while to get back to the blood, gore, and dismemberment that makes up most of the final act. Clearly there are torture porn elements to this 2007 film, and parts are reminiscent of the original "Hostel," most specifically in the fact that the victims are males rather than females (although the same rules apply for figuring out which of the trio will be last one standing). But director Zem Berman provides a mixed bag of horror genres in his film. The back of the DVD proclaims this film "blends the raw fear of 'The Texas Chainsaw Massacre}]' with the stark reality of '[[ASIN:B0000AN4JE In Cold Blood.' I can see the former as a point of reference, but not the latter, mainly because Ulises (Damian Alcazar), the cop who survives the opening scene, is around but not part of a concerted effort to track down the bad guys.

The most memorable part of this film is cleary the performance by Sean Astin, who shows up as one of the bad guys. Having played "Rudy" and Samwise Gamgee in "The Lord of the Rings," there is a tendency to think of Astin as being a kind soul and a little fellow. Well, forget that after watching him in this film. If you were wondering why somebody like Astin would show up for a supporting role in a film like this one, the obvious answer is the opportunity to play against type, which he does quite well. I found it interesting that Berman was more willing to show bad things happening to the good guys than when bad things happen to the villains, although I am not sure what such a distinction signifies. My biggest complaint here is the overuse of hand held cameras, because I am getting really tired of the shots constantly bouncing around in films these days (especially since more and more often I am convinced the rationale for the use of hand held cameras is not aesthetic, but economics: it is way cheaper to shoot a movie that way). However, whatever they did to the film stock for "Borderland " gives the movie an effective look for the south of the border setting. Too bad the soundtrack is little more than constant ominous ambience, because halfway through it becomes rather annoying.

Unlike most movies that throw out the label "Inspired by a True Story," Berman makes sure with the limited DVD Bonus Features that he proves his point. In "Inside Zev's Head: A Filmmaker's Diary," Berman tells about his own personal connections to the case of Adolfo de Jesús Constanzo, the serial killer and cult leader in Mexico known as "The Godfather of Matamoros," when he and some college buddies headed from New Orleans to Mexico with a bunch of voodoo stuff in their van. The specific point of inspiration is the disappearance of Mark Kilory, a college student, during Spring Break in 1989. It turned out that Constanzo, in addition to running drugs, engaged in occult rituals and human sacrifice as followers of Santeria, a religious hybrid of Catholicism and African religions. The details of the investigation are covered in "Rituales de Sangre: The True Story Behind the Cult Murder Investigation," where one of the Texas law officers intimately involved in the case tells the story. As far as telling the true story behind the movie, this is one of the better documentaries I have seen. It was almost enough to get me to round up on this particular DVD, but I really am getting sick of the over-use of handheld cameras in movies these days. Next up: "Unearthed."

After last years horror fest I was disappointed so I really didn't know what to expect with some of this years.After watching Borderland I can say I enjoyed more than any of last years horror fest.
The beginning of the movie shows two detectives in a house in Mexico City and once they enter they discover a slow of weird things like bloody animal meat and some strange signs drawn all over. The detectives soon become hostages to some weird cult.They force the one detective to watch as they torture his partner.One part is especially gruesome and involves the detectives eyes.They let the one detective go so he can let the police know not to mess with this cult group.


It then flashes a year forward where 3 friends, Phil(Rider Strong from Cabin Fever)Ed and Henry. Before they go off to college I guess they want to have one last final fun time together.So off they go to Mexico.After meeting a bartender who ed becomes friends with and a prostitute bad things begin to happen.First Phil is kidnapped and soon after a green van keeps watching Ed,Henry and Valeria.It passes by and Henry sees a stuffed animal Phil had in the backseat.They go to the police but as usual the police aren't very helpful and finally upon seeing the green van again Henry runs up to it looking for a fight.The one cult member gets out and shoots Henry point blank in the neck.Just as this is happening a cop passes by and looks the other way.I guess to show that even the cops are afraid of this cult.Henry somehow survives and they then meet Ulises(the detective who was forced to watch his partner killed a year earlier).


Meanwhile Phil is tied up in some old barn.He meets Randall(an against type Sean Astin,who did a nice job imo)an odd character who offers him chocolate and a chance to watch tv.Soon Phil finds out he is chosen for something important.As this is happening Ed decides to drop Valeria back off at her place while Henry is at the motel so she doesn't get hurt only for her to find out her sister was killed by the cult in a grisly manner.They go back to the motel only to find that the cult had gotten to Henry.


Without giving the ending away we do find out that this cult is all about human sacrifice to please some ancient god and blood must also be shed for this to work I guess.He is tortured and soon Ed,Valeria and Ulises arrive there to save their friend.Are they too late and what happens?

In the last film in our coverage of the After Dark Horrorfest fims, we take a look at Borderland, a film based on actual events. I'm happy to say that Borderland is the best of the four films that I reviewed. On the other hand, the bar was so low with the previous entries, that this isn't saying too much. Three college buddies, Eddie, Henry, and Phil head to a small Mexican bordertown for a few days of booze and babes. Naïve Phil (Rider Strong) is plucked off the streets by members of a cult who practice human sacrifice.

Eddie and Henry have little luck with getting help from the police who themselves are terrified of the cult. Their only aid comes from a local girl, Valeria (Higareda) who helps the guys with the translations although she is new to the town herself. They finally meet a Mexico City cop whose partner was killed by the cult a year ago and has been tracking them down ever since. They plan a desperate rescue attempt to try and save Phil before the cult's charismatic leader, Santillan, can sacrifice him.

Now if the film truly is based on real events then Mexico has moved into my Top 1 spot of places that I will NEVER visit. While not a true horror in the strictest sense, the thriller's themes are horrific and it is suitably bloody. Victims of the cult have limbs chopped off and are hacked to bits with machetes. Sean Astin of The Lord of the Rings Trilogy is almost unrecognizable as a fat, sadistic lackey of Santillans. It took me several scenes to realize that was him, as I had not checked out the credits before watching the film.

Borderland had the best performances of any of the four Horrorfest films that I reviewed. Damian Alcazar was outstanding as the beaten down, and crippled cop trying to avenge his partner's murder. Martha Higareda is extraordinarily beautiful and hopefully she will be in more American film productions as most of her previous credits have been in her native Mexico. Rider Strong, who also starred in another of this year's Horrorfest films, Tooth and Nail, is also very good as the innocent, baby-faced Phil. Chilean Beto Cuevas who plays the ruthless cult-leader, fronts a rock band.

Director Zev Berman moves the film along briskly and dispenses with a lot of the usual low-budget horror film plot devices like gratuitous sex scenes and the like. He goes after the viewer with a visceral intensity and doesn't stop until the final credits roll. Borderland isn't a great film but it's certainly on of the best in this year's batch of Horrorfest films.



Extras
The disc features a commentary track with director Zev Berman, actor Brian Presley and director of photography Scott Kevanand producer Lauren Moews.

There are also two featurettes:

"Inside Zev's Head: A Filmmaker's Diary" runs 24:00 and is basically your "making of" piece with comments from the actors and director.
"Rituales de Sangre - The True Story Behind the Cult Murder Investigation" featuring interviews with the actual investigators of the real life case. 28:00

I finally got around to watching Borderland last night. I've watched most of the "After Dark Horror Fest" films and have to admit I wasn't expecting much. I'm not sure who picks and chooses what enters into their series of films, but I don't have much faith in them. However I'm very pleased with the time I spent with this one.

I'm not a huge fan of the Saw and Hostel films. Don't get me wrong, I love horror it's just the brutality of some of these films that put me off. Much like the face pounding scene from 28 Weeks Later.

This one had its brutal moments, but nothing like the woman taking a blood bath ala Elizabeth Bathory style in Hostel 2.

The acting was solid from everyone involved. I have to give kudos to Sean Astin for his portrayal of the one psycho gringo in the cult. He gave a very convincing performance and really proved he has what it takes to branch out.

The reality of the situation was what drove it home for me. During the time period those Devil Worship stories were popping up in Mexico and college students had disappeared I was living in El Paso Texas. We heard lots of stories about human vertebra neclaces and missing persons. I don't know how true any of it was, but I found the possibilities disturbing to say the least. Pretty scary for a 15 year old living 5 miles from the border. At the time I had no clue that it was closer to Corpus Christi on the complete opposite side of the state.

I highly recommend Borderland. It's not going to win any acedemy awards, but is enjoyable none the less.

There's a moment in "Borderland" when a Mexican cop points a shotgun at the leader of a cult. I don't remember what the cop said, but I do remember that it reminded me of Mandy Patinkin in "The Princess Bride": "Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die." No, this is not the desired effect of "Borderland," and that only makes me question my feelings for it. Here's a film that gets more and more ugly with every passing scene; what starts out as an interesting story ends up as a violent blood fest, with virtually every character dependent on machetes and guns to get a point across. The film opens with a disclaimer saying it's inspired by true events, and it ends with facts for the audience to read. I guess that means we're supposed to believe it, much like when we believed the "true" stories of "The Amityville Horror" and "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre."

But for all its glaring flaws, there's still something appealing about "Borderland," if only just. The opening scene shows two Mexican cops raiding a house in Mexico City; upon entering, they discover an assortment of bizarre things, such as strange signs drawn on the floor, various pieces of bloody animal meat, and a human jawbone. They're then attacked by a group of insane cult members, who seem to take great pleasure in chopping off various body parts. This is exactly what happens to one of the cops while the other--Ulises (Damián Alcázar)--is forced to watch. He was allowed to live so that he could spread word about the cult leader, referred to as Papa. I have no idea what this would accomplish, but I suppose it doesn't really matter.

The story then flashes forward one year, and that's when we're introduced to three graduating friends from Texas: the hotheaded non-conformist Henry (Jake Muxworthy); the desperate virgin Phil (Rider Strong); and Ed (Brian Presley), the main character. Before entering college and going their separate ways, they drive into Mexico looking for drugs, alcohol, and sex. Initially, they don't find much of anything--Phil takes pity on a young prostitute with an infant child, Ed befriends an English-speaking bartender named Valeria (Martha Higareda), and Henry is just being Henry. But after a short while, the three young men are thrust into a nightmare, one that will only get bleaker as the film progresses. One should expect nothing less from a film like this, especially since these characters are broadly drawn and never developed.

It all begins when Phil is kidnapped, and we quickly realize that his captors are the same cult members from the film's opening. They take him to an isolated barn, and after having his wrists tied above his head, he meets an American named Randall--a character that would fit right in with the clan from "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" were it not for his soft, clean-cut voice. I say this because the role of Randall was given to Sean Astin, an actor I neither expected nor wanted in this kind of film; the man who brought Samwise Gamgee to life so wonderfully is too good for a low budget shocker. Truth be told, I'm not entirely sure why his character was included in the first place.

And here's where the film loses some steam. In their search for Phil, Ed and Henry meet with Ulises, who has spent much of the past year gathering evidence against the evil cult. From him, we learn that this cult practices human sacrifice in the belief that it will appease an ancient god. In stories like this, it's all about ancient gods that demand a blood sacrifice every so often; in this case, the victim needed to be a white American because, according to the leader--Santillian (Beto Cuevas)--Mexican victims are no longer effective. Phil has been made the key to bringing this god forth, and this is obviously a bad thing, especially since it involves numerous scenes of his physical and psychological torture. It's actually a pathetic sight--a bleeding, sobbing, half-naked young man with a crudely shaved head. I felt sorry for him.

And that's how I was supposed to feel, I guess. But how far is our sympathy supposed to go? How long are we supposed to invest in these characters? By the time we reach the incredibly violent last third of the film--in which Ed, Valeria, and Ulises search through the cult's compound--I began to wonder if we were, in fact, watching a character driven film; at a certain point, it seemed more like a film that was made gory just for the sake of being gory. Some films can pull that off, specifically those made to be campy. But "Borderland" is not campy in the least, even when the occasional joke is told. It's intense and dramatic, about as serious as the amputation of an arm (yes, that does happen to someone, and no, I won't say who that someone is).

But something is preventing me from dismissing this film entirely. The dynamic between Presley, Muxworthy, and Strong is interesting, if a little shallow, and I got a kick out of Muxworthy's performance. Some of the camerawork is creative, such as in a scene where the characters are high on mushrooms; their movements were choppy, much like an Internet video playing on a computer with a slow modem. There are also a fair number of scenes shot with an unsteady camera, and I still can't decide if this is effective or just visually aggravating. The same can be said for "Borderland" as a whole, a film that doesn't quite work simply because it doesn't know what it wants to be. Maybe a human sacrifice will put things into perspective.

Three Texas College buddies are on a trip in Mexico, they are out for a bit of sex, drugs and fun south of the border. It all seems like a pleasant vacation, what they don't know is that they will become victims of a drug-smuggling Satanic blood cult who's interests are killing people, using a little dope and dismemberment.

Interesting low budget horror thriller is influenced by a true crime that once happened south of the border in 1989. Sean Astin co-stars in this chiller that is literally a cut above the rest of 2007's After Dark Horror fest, the acting is a little weak at spots but good at times and there is some disturbing sequences of torture, brutality, and gore but with tension. The pacing is tight and this movie is a cruel yet creepy exercise into the macabre just like Tobe Hooper's "Texas Chainsaw Massacre" as it takes you to hell and back.

This DVD contains the unrated Director's Cut with extras like audio commentary, and two featurettes especially on the true case that influenced the movie.

Also recommended: "The Untold Story", "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre Series plus 2003 remake and The Beginning", "Hostel 1 & 2", "Maniac (1980)", "Last House on The Left", "Saw Series", "Bloodsucking Freaks", "The New York Ripper", "Se7en", "8MM", "Friday The 13th Series", "A Nightmare on Elm Street Series", "Candyman", "Freddy Vs. Jason", "House of 1000 Corpses", "The Devil's Rejects", "Tenebre", "High Tension", "Joy Ride 1 & 2", "Wrong Turn 1 & 2", "The Hills Have Eyes (1977 and 2006)", "The Hitcher (1986)", "Captivity", "Funny Games (1997)", "The Burning", "Sleepaway Camp Series", "Driller Killer", "Cannibal Ferox", "Frontier(s)", "Race with the Devil", "Wolf Creek", "From Dusk Till Dawn", "Silence of the Lambs", "Ichi The Killer", "The Toxic Avenger", "House on the Edge of the Park", and "Hatchet".

Well, I never want to go to Mexico again, lest I be hacked to bits by a Santeria cult. This film really is quite good, based on true events (loosely I have heard), it is a very visceral experience to watch. The violence and gore are top-notch and very realistic. The acting is strong, the camera work excellent, really the only complaint I have is that the pacing is sometimes off. The first third of the movie can run a bit slow but once it picks up, it never lets up. Don't give up on this movie and you will be pleasantly rewarded. One of the best from Horrorfest '07 by far.