The After Dark Horror Fest (in association with After Dark Films) has released some questionable films over the last few years after striking it big with it’s first Horror Fest two years ago. Last year they released this film BORDERLAND (2007), which is loosely based on a true story (and I do mean loosely).
The film concerns three Americans (Brian Presley, Rider Strong, and Jake Muxworthy) who venture off to Mexico on a last minute whim in order to party and have a good time. All they want to do is drink, take drugs, and have a good time but when one of them is kidnapped by a cult to sacrifice to a Satanic deity all hell starts to break loose. I could go into more detail but then there’s not much more to go into as the film is very predictable and not all that much fun nor entertaining. If the film had tried to be less a cliché I’m sure it would have come off as more entertaining or at least had a style or cinematic flare to carry it through I would be more forgiving (also take into account that I screened four of the After Dark Horror Fest Films in one night and only one of them was entertaining).
This film reminds me a lot of last year’s TOURISTAS but that film at least was entertaining and had some beautiful cinematography. BORDERLAND, which was produced on a small budget, had capable actors and the performances were all serviceable to the script (written by Eric Poppen and Zev Berman) but the story does nothing to try and be anything more than the sum of its parts. There are several standout and gory sequences in the film but not enough to interest die hard horror fans nor is there enough to the story interest the audiences looking for a thought provoking psychological thriller.
Director Zev Berman tries to hold the film together (and point of fact it does look better then most of the indie horror films I’ve seen of late) but he’s no Tobe Hooper and this is no TEXAS CHAIN SAW MASSACRE.
This being said, this is a vast improvement over the Horror Fest’s first year since the majority of those films were just bad all around and BORDERLAND isn’t bad, it just isn’t all that good either but in hindsight it is a testament to the mandate of After Dark Films which is to bring to audiences a variety of horror films that otherwise would go unnoticed. And I noticed this one so I guess they’re doing a good job in that respect.
The film concerns three Americans (Brian Presley, Rider Strong, and Jake Muxworthy) who venture off to Mexico on a last minute whim in order to party and have a good time. All they want to do is drink, take drugs, and have a good time but when one of them is kidnapped by a cult to sacrifice to a Satanic deity all hell starts to break loose. I could go into more detail but then there’s not much more to go into as the film is very predictable and not all that much fun nor entertaining. If the film had tried to be less a cliché I’m sure it would have come off as more entertaining or at least had a style or cinematic flare to carry it through I would be more forgiving (also take into account that I screened four of the After Dark Horror Fest Films in one night and only one of them was entertaining).
This film reminds me a lot of last year’s TOURISTAS but that film at least was entertaining and had some beautiful cinematography. BORDERLAND, which was produced on a small budget, had capable actors and the performances were all serviceable to the script (written by Eric Poppen and Zev Berman) but the story does nothing to try and be anything more than the sum of its parts. There are several standout and gory sequences in the film but not enough to interest die hard horror fans nor is there enough to the story interest the audiences looking for a thought provoking psychological thriller.
Director Zev Berman tries to hold the film together (and point of fact it does look better then most of the indie horror films I’ve seen of late) but he’s no Tobe Hooper and this is no TEXAS CHAIN SAW MASSACRE.
This being said, this is a vast improvement over the Horror Fest’s first year since the majority of those films were just bad all around and BORDERLAND isn’t bad, it just isn’t all that good either but in hindsight it is a testament to the mandate of After Dark Films which is to bring to audiences a variety of horror films that otherwise would go unnoticed. And I noticed this one so I guess they’re doing a good job in that respect.
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