Undocumented

The idea behind undocumented is truly terrifying. It would not surprise me to find that something similar to this goes on near the US border. However, as a film it is just a run-of-the-mill average torture-porn.

This film won't win any awards for creativity, writing, or acting. But for those who just want to watch a gory flick that appeals to your sense of empathy it does deliver. The gore is believable and there are plenty of gut-wrenching emotional scenes.

This isn't a thinking film. You won't come out of it scratching your head, ready to discuss its deeper implications. But it has more heart than your average slasher film.

Avid horror fans will not be impressed, but it's not a bad flick for the average film-going Joe.

Travis (Scott Mechlowicz), Liz (Alona Tal), Davie (Greg Serano), and Jim (Kevin Weisman) are making a documentary about the abuses suffered by undocumented immigrants. They join Davie's cousin Alberto (Yancey Arias) and his family crossing the border when they are intercepted by a private militia. They are enlisted to film the horrors that follow.

This is a low-budget horror piggybacking on some immediate modern political issues. It's illegal immigration with a healthy dose of Abu Ghraib. The main characters don't get enough time to present themselves. It may work better to have only two filmmakers which would allow them more screen time to fill in their roles. The most annoying is the usual hand-held shaky camera work with some in night vision. There's too much of it and it's not necessary. I get it. They're an indie doc film crew. The premise has some promise but it needs some better imagination to spice it up. It needs to have some fun with this horror setup.

This movie reminded me of The Most Dangerous Game where a hunter grew bored with hunting animals and turned to hunting humans instead.This hunter lived alone on a remote island and relied on the surrounding hidden rocks for the shipwrecks that supplied his victims. And so with Undocumented. The humans in this movie, the undocumented immigrants, would never be missed or could never be tracked. I found the movie very hard to watch but it was an effective a warning of man's inhumanity to man as you could get. Do I think that this could really happen......yes! Peter Stormare was very convincing as the psychopathic leader, Z, and I thought the acting was strong all round with an especially fine performance by Scott Mechlowicz as the lead journalist. This film was tight, tense and unforgiving to the senses but it's a story that needed to be told to remind us all that we are all brothers and sisters no matter where we come from or what our circumstances. And yes, we all have a Z inside of us waiting for that spark. Proceed with caution.

I found it to be an underrated and disturbing movie. The story is something different with a documentary crew that is forced to record the things that the patriot group does to the immigrants. It's built-up pretty well with introducing the characters and them getting captured by the sadistic radicals. The movie itself is disturbing with the things they do to these people and is pretty graphic on how they do it. There are those types of people out there that make the movie more unsettling on the topic their are doing. The movie has a creepy atmosphere with it taking place in a compound that is filled with armed man and rooms with disturbing things in it. Also, the climax is pretty suspenseful, with the characters fighting and surviving against the group.

There's a couple of flaws with the movie, like it's gets repetitive with the characters trying to escape and fight back but ends up failing until the climax, which gets pretty tedious. And it gets somewhat predictable with the characters' actions.

If Martyrs and Altroz and The Farm somehow merged together and had a baby hybrid, this is the baby that would come out. The movie is actually pretty decent. It's not great, but it was a fun watch. I think there is a deep message in this movie, and that's that even if you want to do the right good thing, do something good, sometimes it's just better not to.

Even though some segments in this movie seem unrealistic, like the Pinata scene, which was really out of place, for the most part, the movie is a wild ride. I would go that far to classify this as somewhat of a Grindhouse flick like Hobo With A Shotgun. It just has that kind of energy.

I understood for the most part what was going on, however, I wish I watched this with subs, but there were none. (There were English subs only in the Mexican parts). I was expecting that the blonde chick would be executed first, how much she fought against the villains. But luckily her boyfriend and the Mexican father survived.

I think there was a scene where a pregnant woman was supposed to be worked on, but that scene never occurred. I was preparing for that to be very graphic but they never showcased it, which is probably for the better.

If you are into a slasher and crime films like Altroz, or Teriffier, I think this would rock your boat. Z is insane.