Final Prayer

Last year a film was released named 'In Fear', which managed to make the premise of two people getting lost in a maze of country roads as night draws in surprisingly creepy and gripping, before the final act gave way to a more pedestrian nature and the film lost its footing. 'The Borderlands', a British entry into the canon of handy-cam/found footage horror, manages to work it the other way round. Not to say the first hour or so is pedestrian as such, but going by the premise, no doubt many people will think they have seen it all before and skip this film. They would be partly right, although to the film's credit, it manages to tread that old ground with a good enough script and performances to not seem tired.

Deacon, Gray and Mark are Vatican sanctioned, paranormal investigators who arrive in a small, west country town to look into a claim of miracles at a local, old church. Things take a darker turn as their investigation leads them to increasingly unrealistic scientific explanations for the claim. The characters are very real and their relationship is not weighed down by forced efforts to be unnecessarily scary. Indeed, there is an occasional moment of brevity and humour between them, which nicely offsets the apparently tedious nature of their job; one could draw a comparison with the first act of Neil Marshall's 'The Descent', coincidentally another well regarded British horror. Another intelligent point arises in the form of the characters' set of beliefs; refreshingly, it is the agnostic technical supervisor who is most inclined to believe the extraordinary explanation, whilst the believers are the ones jaded by the claims so often proved false. It must also be said that where in other, similar fare, the explanation of the use of home video cameras and the like seems forced and a little intrusive, here it makes perfect sense and you do actually forget that is what you are watching.

Then we hit the last 20 minutes! Some earlier chatter about belief proves to not just be screenplay-filling fodder, but real groundwork that actually comes back to bite hard in claustrophobic scenes. This final act's power to disturb is akin to the final moments of 'The Blair Witch Project', 'Rosemary's Baby', or perhaps more pertinently 'The Wicker Man', to which the smart screenplay has actually made humorous and perhaps not purely incidental reference. In these cases, the horrible reality of the story is made truly tangible in such a way as to cause a palpable discomfort within the gut of the audience; it creates a creeping unease that is hard to express in words. So it is the case with 'The Borderlands', although how unnerved you are is not completely clear until after the film, when the imagery of the idea being brought to its fruition cements in your mind's eye, and as with Edward Woodward's final, defiant yelling, or Mia Farrow's famous last lines, a character's dreadful cries become horribly haunting in a way that is tough to shake off simply by saying, "It's only a movie'.

'The Borderlands' is not overcooked and has much about it that will probably be admired by fans of writer/director Ben Wheatley, who is maybe most noted right now for 'Kill List'. Overall, not one we might call a great horror film, but without doubt, within the film are moments of great horror!

Good POV style horror with a great balance of realism and demonic supernaturalism with one of the most horrifying endings I can recall.

Wow, what a great little film. I'd seen trailers for this quite a while ago and was waiting for this to come out on the big screen. However, it seems that this has just played at a few film festivals and then been released on DVD, so this film will pass quite a lot of viewers by, which is a huge shame.

The story concerns a Vatican team of investigators, conducting an investigation into a 12th (I think) century church in rural England. The local priest has reported supernatural goings on that he considers to be miracles, but these so called miracles soon turn out to be something far more unpleasant.

Most write ups of this film have focused on the fact that this is a found footage film. Please ignore this, as I find that this does the film a huge disservice. Found footage these days has mostly negative connotations, but The Borderlands effectively avoids the pitfalls of this most lazy of filming styles. There is very little time spent here watching empty rooms, or being confused by wildly shaky camera work. This is no half hearted causally thrown together film. Instead, this is an expertly crafted little film, with lots of great ideas and wonderful characters.

What surprised me the most about this film were the characters. The two central characters, Deacon and Gray, are the warm beating heart of this film. Watching their relationship develop from awkwardness and barely concealed disdain for one another to something much more akin to friendship was great. I had worried that Gray, who serves as the film's comic relief, would begin to grate after a while, but he serves effectively as our guide into the film's darkness, at first full of quips and digs aimed at everyone and everything around him, but he then becomes more serious and increasingly uncomfortable and alarmed as the situation spins out of control.

The religious aspect of this film also serves to add to the film's depth, with the religious characters serving as the skeptics and Gray, the only non religious member of the investigation team, being the most willing to believe. This, plus the dawning realisation that the supernatural elements at play here may be something altogether more malevolent and older even than Christianity, means that this is a very human film and one filled with chills and effective scares.

And then there's the end, and this goes back to my comment on the film's ideas. Wow! I loved the end to this film, although I have read comments from those who feel that this was out of keeping with the rest of the film. Without going into spoilers, I will say that the film's final section delves into altogether deeper and darker territory, but as long as you're paying attention, this is well built towards throughout the entire film. The film drip feeds in information and nods in the direction of what is a superbly original and downright horrible sting in the tail of this wonderful film.

No, it isn't the 'scariest film ever!!!!' as some of the critics have described it. But then again I'm not easily scared when it comes to this type of film. But it is a darkly creepy and nasty little film, with a great plot and nicely developed characters. And as such, I thoroughly enjoyed The Borderlands and would recommend it highly.

A low budget British gem that delivers. Don't let the found- footage sub-genre put you off as this isn't your typical-shaky-cam film.

I love the way the friendship develops between the two leads. Deacon, the cynic is having doubts about his faith and spends half the film finding solace in the bottom of a wine bottle. Grey, the cheeky-geezerish bloke who you take an instant like to, though not a believer per se, Grey can't entirely discount the possibility of a more cosmic force guiding our lives in unseen ways. Together they uncover a sinister truth more horrifying than either of them could have imagined.

The film has ambition that transcends its meager budgetary constraints. There are some terrifically unsettling set-pieces

It uses gore sparingly, focusing more on claustrophobic chills and general edit room trickery to build up a picture of a world on the verge of ripping itself apart.

The ending will probably stay with you for some time. I still feel uneasy just thinking about it.

Enjoy!

The Borderlands is one of the better found-footage films that has come out of late, and is one of the best British horror films to come out in a seriously long time.

Initially a little unconvincing, and with a slightly irritating character played by Robin Hill, it may take a short while to settle into. But as events unfold and things get darker, I guarantee you will be glued to the screen, as creepy and sinister becomes terrifying and horrific. The acting is great, the tension never falters, and the ending is one of the nastiest to feature in a horror film in years. A good film.