Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Oh those crazy mexican drug lords and their human sacrificing, April 29, 2008
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.
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Borderland, January 2, 2008
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.
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7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Three best buds make the mistake of heading south to "Borderland", March 19, 2008
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."
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