Borderland

'Compact' is the word I'd use to describe Borderland. It doesn't offer anything revolutionary which will blow your mind, but, if you're a fan of the genre, you should find it satisfying.

It follows the (familiar) story of X good-looking young Americans, travelling to X and running into trouble in the form of X. Sometimes these packs of good-looking young Americans are girls, sometimes boys, other time a mixed group. Sometimes they travel to a remote town in America, sometimes a remote town in Europe. Once they get to where they're going, they run into trouble in the form of zombie/vampires/ghosts/rednecks/cannibals - choose your 'nasty.' In this instance, three lads travel to Mexico and get mixed up with... well, you'll have to watch it to find out.

Like I say, the story is pretty generic. I've seen plenty of these sorts of movies (you can probably tell by my cynical tone), but this one is pretty reasonable. The protagonists aren't (completely) unlikeable, don't do (too many) stupid things and you can basically root for their plight.

If you like this sort of film, give it a go. Trust me, there are many worse than this (and I've sat through almost every last one of them).

This American/Mexican movie from the border between USA and Mexico is loosely based on a true story, which is hard to accept. But evil exists, and it's awful to get to know about it. And this is a story difficult to see and comprehend.

Three young guys go down to Mexico one summer, where they experience that one of them disappears. One of them is kidnapped by humans believing in human sacrificing to the spirit Nganga. The cult leader is based upon The story of Adolfo de Jesus Constanzo! The so-called Godfather of Matamoros. They found more than fifty corpses where brains and spinal cords had been removed. Well, that's the true story, of a case which still isn't closed, as several members of the cult still is on the run.

The film is technically good, and well done in all aspects. The colors are gritty, made with color filters, like many Latin American film has been lately. In this film it's very suitable. Sometimes maybe a bit too much, as it is sometimes difficult to see clearly, outdoors in the sun. Indoors it's better.

The film is made terrifying, as it should be. many actors are doings terrific job. Maybe not so much Brian Presley and Jake MuxWorthy as Rudef Strong. But the Mexicans are doing great, and I always admire Damian Alcazar (amazing in 2004-film Chronicas/Chronicles). The crook Marco Bacuzzi is amazingly terrifying as a violent evil man. One of the scariest I've seen on film ever. The bad guys here are really disgusting all of them. Well played.

I find this a very good film, Though I don't like this kind of violence. I hate watching it, and definitely more do when it is a true story. This is of course it's not everyone's porridge. If you trouble with graphic films, this is no film for you. It's no constellation "this is just film", 'cause it isn't just. It is based on a true happening, found in the insanity of some human's religion. Embrace yourself.

Horror movie or docudrama? Both and neither.

The opening scene of this movie deceives, situating it firmly in Hostel territory, with grotesque violence and intense claustrophobic action. In the main action of the film, however, it seems as if the horror movie element of this is compromised by the fact that two of those involved are still alive. If safely dead foreigners can be depicted as the victims of graphic bloodletting, living and dead Americans cannot be. To be blunt, this film cops out. It is selective in what the audience are permitted to see entire and what is merely implied or suggested, presumably with relatives' and survivors' sensibilities in mind. There is nothing wrong with this, if this were packaged as a real life story, but as a horror movie it is a cheat. Instead of becoming more involving or thrilling as the action unwinds, it becomes increasingly distant, chilly and mechanical.

I can't help thinking it would have been far more successful to have taken the basic premise of the story and to have gone down the road of complete fiction, to sustain the energy and darkness of the opening scene, instead of the patchy and undigested amalgam it becomes. That way, it would have been a terrific horror. Instead, it's neither fish nor fowl, and unsatisfactory stuff.

Released in 2007, "Borderland" is a horror film about three college guys (Brian Presley, Jake Muxworthy & Rider Strong) on Spring Break in Galveston, Texas, who decide to skip over the border to party with the prostitutes. Their vacation goes awry when they run afoul of a brutal drug cult, led by a charismatic-but-diabolic occultist (Beto Cuevas). Damián Alcázar plays a Mexican detective while Martha Higareda appears as the potential girlfriend of one of the Americans. Marco Bacuzzi plays the top cult henchmen with Sean Astin an American enlistee.

The opening epilogue involves a gory torture sequence, which is unpleasant to say the least, but the story soon switches to the three Americans and their trip to Mexican strip joints where a couple curvy señoritas are highlighted. I could tell this was shot on the West Coast of Mexico rather than the East Coast. The city scenes, for instance, were shot in Tijuana, substituting for Matamoros.

The story is loosely based on the 1989 abduction of American pre-med student, Mark Kilroy, from outside a Mexican bar where he was taken to Adolfo de Jesús Constanzo's ranch in the desert, about an hour drive from Matamoros & the border. Fifteen mutilated corpses were discovered buried at the ranch, one of them Kilroy's, who was hacked to death by a machete. Constanzo's cult practiced sorcery in the form of Palo Mayombe, engaging in torture and human sacrifice for supernatural power, e.g. for their drug-runners to appear invisible to border guards.

Constanzo was a known homosexual, but the movie surrounds the Constanzo-based character, Santillan, with Mexican babes. I doubt this was done to be politically correct; I'm sure the filmmakers simply wanted to give him cinematic appeal for the target audience, most of whom would run away screaming if Santillan was depicted with hunky dudes attending to his amorous needs.

While the movie's sometimes unpleasant for obvious reasons, it's gritty, engaging and well-acted, particularly the first half. I'm sure the director, Zev Berman, is a fan of films like "Apocalypse Now" because you definitely see glimmerings of that kind of greatness. Unfortunately, this was the last movie by Berman as of this writing. He could've gone on to be a contenda, like Coppola.

The picture runs 100 minutes and was shot entirely in Baja California, Mexico. It was written by Eric Poppen & director Zev Berman.

GRADE: B+

In Mexico City, while chasing the leader of a cult, Detective Ulises (Damián Alcázar) is forced to watch his partner being tortured and murdered by the criminals. One year later, the teenage Americans Ed (Brian Presley), Phil (Rider Strong) and Henry (Jake Muxworthy) are in a summer camp in Galveston and they decide to travel to the borderland in Mexico to get laid with Mexican hookers. Ed has a crush on the bartender Valeria (Martha Higareda) and the virgin Phil feels attracted by a young prostitute with a baby and decides to give a teddy bear to the child. However, he is abducted by the followers of Palo Myombe that are preparing a human sacrifice to get the Power of Nganga to become invisible while smuggling drugs.

"Borderland" is another flawed and brutal movie of torture. The story is very violent and graphic, and fans of this genre might like it. However, there are many holes and unreasonable situations in the screenplay like, for example, why Detective Ulises is in disgrace that is never well explained. Why Valeria joins Ulises and Ed when they break into the farm crowded of dangerous and fanatic drug-dealers is totally useless and unreasonable. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "O Limite do Medo" ("The Limit of the Fear")