Opening TBA
Cast:
Brian Presley as Ed
Jake Muxworthy as Henry
Rider Strong as Phil
Martha Higareda as Valeria
Sean Astin as Randall
Damián Alcázar as Ulises
Beto Cuevas as Santillan
Marco Bacuzzi as Gustavo
Directed by Zev Berman
Review:
Another foreign land. Another band of restless American 20-somethings looking to get stoned and boned before committing to school, relationships, work and life. Thanks to Hostel, it’s becoming increasingly difficult for filmmakers to tell their “strangers in a strange land” tale without drawing parallels. Thus, responsibility falls on the storyteller to be progressive in their approach. Tell that to the creators of Turistas, Wolf Creek and the direct-to-vid flick Live Feed who have taught us, more often than not, that the cover may be different, yet the book is still the same. And tell that to Zev Berman whose Borderland is the latest offender, relocating cinematic sadism to Mexico for a digestible thriller that’s as disconnected, emotionally, as an “America’s Most Wanted” re-enactment. Quite simply, getting by on a cautionary “based on true events” title card just isn’t enough to capture my instant investment anymore.
To director Berman’s credit (he co-wrote the film with Eric Poppen), despite the utter detachment one gets from the experience as a whole, Borderland‘s effectiveness comes from its violence – especially during an opening act sequence during which a police officer is harvested, alive, for some necessary body parts. Berman forgoes the gross-out money shots in lieu of sheer terror as expressed through the pained reactions of the victim’s partner who is forced to watch his pal get butchered. But that’s not to say grue aficionados don’t have their day, they certainly do here and in the limited bits of nastiness (one involving a goat head) that crescendo into the grand third act sacrifice that, again, is skillfully executed. In particular, there’s a severed head effect that’s determined to cuts your balls off and is so matter-of-fact it’s the most chilling part of this film.
Everything else we’ve seen before. Three dudes – Ed (Brian Presley), Henry (Jake Muxworthy) and Phil (Rider Strong) – head down to Mexico for a final fling before venturing out on their own paths. This trio – who mostly concern themselves with having a good time – reflect their divergent personalities from the outset. How they all come into play when the bullshit hits the fan is pretty apparent. Phil is a naive preacher’s son. Henry is a loose-cannon man of science while Ed is the most contemplative of the lot. So it comes as no surprise that Phil is the one who’s later kidnapped – while trying to return, solo, to a hooker he has fallen for – by some fierce-looking thugs who have grand plans to make this naive fella a sacrifice to whatever gods are protecting their illegal operations. Sound just a little bit familiar so far?
It takes little to guess that the rest of the film finds Ed and Henry searching around town for their pal with guide/eye-candy Valeria, played by Latin uber-vixen Martha Higareda. She’s their connection to help ease the communication breakdown with the townsfolk. When it becomes evident these three have fallen under surveillance by some shady black magic-worshipping drug runners (led by a rock ‘n roll-like high priest played by real-life singer Beto Cuevas) even the local help becomes scant. Enter Ulises, the aforementioned police officer who made it through the film’s intro intact and bears a resemblance to a shaggy Saddam Hussein for the rest of the picture. His re-introduction and parallel narrative is off-putting at best, a seemingly unnecessary addition that shoots pacing in the kneecaps and lessens the urgency of Ed and Henry’s predicament. Not only that, it’s around this time Borderland turns into a Robert Rodriguez actioner complete with a compound invasion followed by a Straw Dogs-esque standoff.
What’s this film trying to be exactly? You can start by saying it’s a vivid reminder that reality is always freakier than fiction, of course – it’s based on the late-’80s Mark Kilroy investigation. But it could also be construed as a right of passage film, a collision of faiths, or a simple entertaining shocker where the tension-release comes in seeing the bad guys get their comeuppance. Whatever the case may be, Berman and Poppen’s script stretches itself all too thin for long-standing reflection post-viewing. Performances are varied at best, often dry and by-the-numbers. Strong, however, turns in a credible display of helplessness assisted by a transformed Sean Astin (the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy), Phil’s white trash behemoth of a captor whose amiable demeanor is merely a sheer disguise to the deadly machismo beneath.
There’s no denying the competency of Berman’s vision. The man knows how to climb the ladder of tension and he and cinematographer Scott Kevan (Cabin Fever) paint an appropriately gritty picture with rich, overly-contrasty, desaturated earth tones. It’s just a shame that so many films of this ilk have already muscled in on Borderland‘s territory to make Berman’s horror debut rather unremarkable dramatic fodder.
