Borderland

In hindsight, I probably shouldn't have watched Borderland first out of the other 2007 horror fest titles I rented, because this film has set the bar pretty high. The plot concerns a trio of college friends who decide, before they each move on to different schools, to take a last minute trip over the border for some uninhibited debauchery. Things soon turn into a hellish nightmare when they become targets of a violent drug ring/cult. What keeps this from being another Hostel knock off is Borderlands realistic approach to the material (what makes the proceedings even more terrifying is that they are based on actual events). Also, I was impressed by the quality of the film making and especially the acting, which helps add to the realism (look for an actor you might remember from the Lord of the Rings in very convincing, un-hobbit like role). From the nerve shattering, horrific opening to the finale, Borderland is great horror film that gets under your skin. I highly recommend it to those with strong stomachs.

Imagine being in a foreign land n persuaded by satanic cultists n the cops are of no use. A very scary thot. I travel a lot to the interiors n stay in those cheap hotels. The hotel scene is this movie is downright scary.

I always look forward for the horror films festival known as 8 Films to Die For.

I first saw this in 2008 on a dvd which I own. Revisited it recently. This film has one of the most nerve shattering, horrific opening. This film gets under your skin. This is not torture porn or Hostel wannabe. The script is solidly scary n really frightening when u come to kno that it is based on a true story of a drug lord/leader of a religious cult that practiced human sacrifices. The tension in this film is very high and the atmosphere is genuinely scary. Direction by Zev Berman is really good. I don't know y he ain't doin any more movies. He shud get more movies.

Was surprised to see Sean Astin. Lastly, the film has some really hot chicks n a very sadistic n creepy bald villain. I felt like thrashing him.

"Based on true events" is rather ambiguous at best and I think if you go into this film believing it's ALL true it will be quite an experience, however I find that the story too well follows a classic plot to be an entirely true story.

Three guys take a trip to Mexico that goes all wrong when they run into a cult of violent murderers. That's pretty much the gist of things.

The acting is actually rather decent and the story is well told and even believable to some degree and it kept my attention all the way through and proved to be one of the better films I've seen in this genre. I actually had to remind myself half way through that this was supposed to be a gore-filled horror film. There was nothing new in terms of blood, guts, and gore, and there really wasn't a whole lot of it given the length of the movie, but what's there gets the point across well.

Some people have referred to it as "goreporn" also which it really isn't. I'm glad at least some writers feel that gratuitous sex/nudity take away from a story when unnecessary.

Bottom line: If you go in expecting the same garbage this genre pumps out yearly, you'll be quite pleasantly surprised. If you go in expecting a masterpiece in horror theater, you'll likely be disappointed.

I have a problem with the new genre of "torture porn" that has muscled its way into the horror movie limelight with such movies as Hostel and Touristas. It's sick, repugnant, and of virtually no redeeming value, and yet, like a moth to a flame, I can't bring myself to not watch it, even though I end up cursing myself for subjugating my mind to its imagery afterward.

Such was the case when the 2007 edition of Montreal's Fantasia Film Festival scheduled a screening of Borderland. I found myself driving downtown muttering to myself how I was going to regret this. And truth be told, I almost did, except that the movie came packaged in a fully fleshed out story (pun intended) that had the added impact of having been based on a true story.

In 1989, Mexican police unearthed 12 bodies in the town of Matamoros. Their brains and spinal cords had been removed. It was later determined that a gang of drug smugglers had been practicing their own form of Santeria, a religious hybrid of Catholicism and African religions, similar to Voodoo. The leader of the gang, Adolfo de Jesus Constanzo, was worshiped as a living god by his followers and practiced the ritual sacrifice of wayward individuals in the belief that the gods would make them invisible to the police as they went about their drug smuggling operation.

This is the backdrop that Borderland sets itself against as it tells the tale of a trio of Americans from Texas who head for a short stay in Mexico to indulge in some fast women and cheap booze. Along the way they hook up with a stunning and resourcefully independent Mexican barmaid played by Martha Higareda (soon to be seen alongside Keanu Reeves and Hugh Laurie in The Night Watchmen) and, as fate would have it, cross paths with members of the gang. The movie also delivers some truly twisted casting as Sean Austin of Lord of the Rings renown takes a villainous turn as the lone American member of the Santeria drug gang.

Director Zev Berman, for whom this movie marks only his third stint holding the directorial reigns, does a remarkably good job keeping the pacing tight and focused, blending a nice mix of story, action and (I hate to say it) gore, even though it's this latter part that I dearly wish could be toned down. The version I saw had not yet been rated by the MPAA so if there's any hope, the more unnecessarily gory parts of it will be excised before it gets given its cinematic release. While I'm no advocate of censorship, some of the gorier shots were just plain gratuitous. Berman would do well to re-cut the movie taking a cue from the original Saw (as opposed to the sequels), which illustrated just how gory you could make a movie while showing so little.

Still, Borderland plays out to a satisfying pay off, and never let my interest flag along the way, even if it did have me watching large chunks (pun intended, again) through my fingers, which, I suppose, is a good thing for some folks.

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+