Steel Yourself for the Borderlands

“I don’t believe in violence . . . without a purpose.”

Borderland, is a shocking blood fest loosely based on real events in Matamoros, Mexico.

It is Autumn and the 2008 After Dark Horrorfest Movie Series is right around the corner. Time to start saving your pennies for the ticket that guarantees you eight movies in one mind-blowing weekend. Or you can select and pick the movies that interest you during the weekday. For more information stop by the Horror Fest web site and see what they’re revealing about this season’s line up or where they’ll be playing. January 9-15, 2009 will be upon you before you know it — have you got your tickets?

To whet your appetite for horror, let’s look at the movies from last year’s line-up. We’ll start with . . .

TITLE:

BORDERLAND

Director:

Zev Berman

Writers:

Zev Berman and
Eric Poppen

GENRE:

Horror, Crime, “Torture Porn”

DESCRIPTORS:

Horror, College Graduates, Mexico, Border Towns, Drugs, Drug Cartel, Cult, Ritual Sacrifice, Human Sacrifice, Revenge, Blood and Gore, Dismemberment.

RATING:

Unrated “Director’s Cut” and a toned down R rated theater release.

SUMMARY:

The movie starts with a pair of detectives entering the house of suspected drug lord Santillan, too late to prevent him from fleeing. Unfortunately for them, he left behind a few followers led by the frighteningly sadistic Gustavo who needs to collect a few body parts from one of the cops for a future ritual.

“The border has no memory.”

Meanwhile, three college graduates head down to Mexico for fun, drugs, drinking and sex. The dynamics between Ed, Phil and Henry prove to be among the movie’s highlights. Ed is the “golden boy” who had a bright future but suddenly decides to drop out to do Peace Corps type work. Henry is twenty miles of rough road fraught with hard drinking, hard drugging and loose women. He’s everybody’s friend but only close to Ed, in whom he is greatly disappointed. Phil is the eternally innocent looking “pal”. He seems to be Henry’s pet project. For Henry, the trip’s major interest is in getting Phil high and getting him laid.

They stop off at a border town and Ed even meets an attractive, fiercely independent barmaid Valeria who assists them when the chips fall — and they do because members of Santillan’s cult have marked Phil as their next human sacrifice. When Phil disappears, Ed and Henry go to the police who are unwilling to look into the matter. Help comes in the form of a broken detective, a man seeking one last chance to avenge the death of his partner.

But will it be enough?

APPEAL:

This was a very difficult movie to watch. I actually gave up a third of the way in, and finished watching it a few days later for this blog post. Hey, I could only do it for you.

It turns out that the worst part was already over. The rest of the movie was bloody and gory and shocking a time or two and certainly tense (it had the perfect atmosphere for tense — the environment just exuded the potential for sudden violence) However, once you get past the early scenes with the two detectives, you’ve endured the worst.

One reviewer called it “torture porn”, although it was smarter than other movies of that genre such as Turistas and Hostel, two films I’ve yet to watch. You can read his entire review here. He did a good job but I have a couple of cents to throw in.

There is a refreshing smartness to this film that caused me to replay the ending over and over in my head. In most movies and a lot of stories I’ve read, the protagonist goes through the gauntlet and trials or adversaries before he or she reaches the “big bad” at the very end. The good guy is exhausted and the monster is ready for battle. That is not how the ending plays out in this movie.

The three remaining protagonists play it smart . . . well, smart for people who raid a cult compound filled with dozens of killers without any back-up. Still, the ending of the movie doesn’t play out like the “gauntlet” style of storytelling. It gave me the sense that this was how events actually happened. This demonstrated the skill of writer/director Zev Berman and writer Eric Poppen. They had me thinking that the real events must have played out like the movie did until I read the actual account and discovered the events the movie was based on were actually much different.

READALIKES:

If you enjoyed this movie you might want to try the first Saw movie — another blood and gore fest with wit, intelligence and a bit more restraint than the uncut version of Borderland.

You can order Borderland or the entire After Dark Horrorfest: 8 Films to Die For from Amazon.com.

Did you see this movie? What did you think of it? Too over the top or not bloody enough? Do you even have any interest in the so-called “torture porn” movie sub-genre? How about if it shows a little depth and though as this one did? Let me know in the comments. We can talk about it.

This article is based upon an earlier post made in The Lair of the Undead Rat.