Review by Ben Bussey
2013 is well on its way to becoming the year I start liking found footage again. I’ve never been particularly enamoured with the format – I always disliked The Blair Witch Project, for one thing – but there have indubitably been at least a few truly great horror movies made in that style this past decade or so. However, the proliferation of lazy movies in which the camera operator seems to have Parkinsons and the cast seem incapable of saying anything other than “bro” or how much they enjoy drinking/taking drugs/having sex have made the entire subgenre (if we can call it that) very easy to despise.
But with Frankenstein’s Army, and now this… I’m not going to say there’s new life in found footage. I still feel the approach is overplayed, and best avoided unless it’s really, truly appropriate to the story being told. But still, it does go to show that you can still use found footage to make a horror movie that’s entertaining, involving, funny, surprising, and – yes – genuinely fucking scary…
Saturday afternoon of Abertoir 2013 was a very appropriate time to see The Borderlands. That evening, the Aberystwyth Arts Centre played host to a magnificent double bill of Zombie Flesh Eaters and The Haunting, with the star of both films Richard Johnson there in person to discuss his work afterwards. As a paranormal investigation movie played for relative realism, The Borderlands is a direct successor to The Haunting, but it’s far closer in spirit (pun, moi?) to Robert Wise’s 1963 classic than a great many to have come since, as it does not neglect to develop characters we can get invested in before the shit hits the fan, and maintains a nice line in droll humour to keep things from getting that bit too intense.
The movie follows seasoned, gruff Vatican investigator Deacon (Gordon Kennedy) and younger, more laid-back techie Gray (Robin Hill) as they meet for the first time to investigate a reported miracle in a remote backwoods church in England’s West Country. As dictated by protocol, the areas being investigated are fitted with cameras and all team members must wear individual head-cams to ensure that absolutely everything is documented. (This also means the film cuts between these individual cameras, and some of these cameras remain stationary at all times, so the inevitable motion sickness is happily minimal.) Mismatched from the off, tensions between Gray and Deacon seem likely, but this gradually gives way to a certain camaraderie as they get deeper into the investigation. Whilst Gray is an agnostic and Deacon is the man of God, it’s Deacon who winds up more sceptical of the claims made by the local priest Father Crellick (Luke Neal – and did he really have to have a name so close to that of Father Crilly, AKA Father Ted?) Having been in this business far longer than Gray, Deacon knows the lengths some people will go to to fake this kind of thing. However, there’s no faking the overall air of weirdness in the village, and the deeper the investigation goes, the weirder and more dangerous things become.
Writer-director Elliot Goldner does himself proud with this as his debut, as there’s an emphasis on character and story here that puts the work of more experienced filmmakers to shame. As Keri so correctly argued a while back, the problem with most found footage is that anyone who carries a camcorder around for the duration of a crisis is invariably a wanker who you want to see die quickly. Not so Deacon and Gray; whilst each has their less agreeable tendencies, with Gray’s mouthy lager lout persona threatening to get particularly grating, both characters really develop as they bond over the case (the excellent work of the actors is of course pivotal here). As we come to care about them, we want them to get out of there unscathed – even if we know their chances of doing so are not that likely.
It’s notable that one of Brutal As Hell’s most outspoken found footage haters, Steph, was also won over by The Borderlands when she caught it at FrightFest. However, I must strongly part ways with Steph over one point: she suggests it is “perhaps let down in the closing ten minutes or so.” Now, I guess I can see Steph’s point. For the most part The Borderlands plays things pretty ambiguous, and that goes right out the window at the big finish. However… what a finish it is. It’s quite rare these days that a movie makes me squirm in genuine fear, but the closing scenes of The Borderlands did it. I will divulge no specifics, but it’s a powerful, bizarre, gut-wrenching conclusion that gets into some pretty primal terrors. It really did a number on me, and I gather I wasn’t the only Abertoir attendee to feel that way.
The Borderlands is set to hit Region 2 DVD on 7th April 2014, from Metrodome.