It’s Friday night. You have nothing significantly better to do while you’re spending time with your buddies and none of you are overly concerned with the quality of your chosen cinema. All you know is you want to see something strange, disturbing, or maybe laughable if the mood strikes you. Then say hello to your friend the B horror movie. “Hello Mr. B Movie. How are you?” “I’m currently scary, Mr. random viewer.” Low budget indie horror movies always have some sort of draw that allows you to appreciate their raw style. Whether it’s good or not is debatable, but viewers usually find something fun to latch onto and ride the-daylights-out-of through the end of the flick.

Borderland

Trademark After Dark Films

I was a little negative toward this movie at the start due to the premise. Three students take a vacation to the American/Mexican border and while there they find a cult that uses human sacrifices. You’re probably thinking what I did: this flick will be nothing but torture, with people desperately trying to escape while crazy men chase them about in equally as crazy costumes. We were right to some extent, with the exception of the costumes, but it actually has more to offer. I’m not sure if the traditional horror audience could sink their teeth as deep into this one as some others because Borderland is more like a horror film crossed with an organized crime movie. It is apparently based on a true story which is entirely possible. I can’t confirm that it is entirely factual, but it is grounded in reality, unlike a certain other movie based on true stories that won’t be mentioned. Let’s just say it rhymes with TAmityville THorror.

Borderland brings story to what is otherwise senseless violence. It’s what the Saw movies could be if they were less concerned with mutilation and more concerned with plot. The cult is more than just your run-of-the-mill group of savages that sacrifice people to appease the gods. They’re drug runners, which if I remember correctly specialize in heroin. They sacrifice people because they believe that, in return, the gods protect them from being captured by the police. The police are ultimately afraid of the cult and therefore do not interfere with its activities. The three college students come into play on their vacation because, of course, one is chosen for ritual sacrifice by the heroin dealing cult. From there we enter a world inhabited by morbid characters and suspenseful situations. Borderland, unlike many horror movies, has a definite resolution. It even tags on a text epilogue to give historical resolution rather than just the happenings within the story.

The down side to this film is that it’s categorized as horror, which is fine considering the subject matter deals with the occult, but I found myself more interested in the dramatic side of the story: the Mexican cop who lost his partner to the cult and was left with a lame leg, and the American boys who had to deal with their the loss of their friend. It was almost laughable the way they tried to introduce romantic interests in the film. One is short-lived and the other is doomed from the start, but we don’t actually know whether or not the characters will end up together. It almost seems pointless, but I’m glad it was included in the movie because it humanizes the characters further. By the end all you’re concerned with is who lives and who dies.

The Verdict: I think it’s a worthy buy, but for the general public I say a rent will suffice.

Coming up next: Crazy Eights and The Deaths of Ian Stone

Tags: b horror movie, borderland, Movies

This entry was posted on Friday, April 4th, 2008 at 3:03 pm and is filed under Horror, Movies, Vincent. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.