17th October 2018 | 31 Days of “Alternative” Horror: Borderlands
This low budget British horror is more of an anti-buddy-comedy-horror with walls closing in from all sides. The walls represent the progression of the story delivered to us as a much organised, linear found footage movie.
The story follows two Vatican “supernatural” investigators who are sent to a remote church in Devon in order to figure out rumours of actual miracles taking place are in fact true, or not…
They approach this like any other paranormal investigator: setting up cameras, speaking with the locals and spending the night on the grounds. At first, you might feel as though there’s a flaw in the performances, but this is what I would deem a typical trait in UK cinema: characters don’t have to be likable as long as they are true. They don’t have to fit into your circle of friends, unlike most movies that try to sell you on character, audience relationship. This is a found footage movie after all. What we are concerned with is what happens to these people, right?
Once they settle in their furnished apartment, Gray Parker, played by Robin Hill, and Brother Deacon played by Gordon Kennedy set about their plans. Soon Father Mark Amidon arrives and tension builds between him and Brother Deacon. Past hurts that give weight to the film’s main tagline: “Don’t Lose Your Way”
On the side of religious faith, both Deacon and Mark are sceptical. They don’t want it to be anything of value, whereas the technical wizard and agnostic Gray believes that this is a chance to find some hard evidence of something extraordinary — no matter what form it takes, he’s a believer.
Soon enough, strange things start to happen. Villagers also react to their presence with some alarming acts through the night, and so it becomes difficult to decide where the human element stops and the supernatural starts.
The church does have secrets, and not everything is in plain sight. It seems to be one of those films that you can’t really talk about too much because it gives too much away.
It can be said that the film leads you in easy and spits you out at the final credits with a blood curdling choke.
The Borderlands title was changed for the US audience to Final Prayer so as to not get confused to take attention away because of the game Borderlands. The Borderlands here are not exactly geographical, but more working on the common distinctions between heaven and hell. It’s not the typical found footage movie, but it remains true to the form which is why you see only what need to see right up to the very end.
Mark Kermode, the film reviewer noted that The Borderlands was a movie that reminded us to be scared, and that we as an audience can become immune to their scariness. This is true of The Borderlands, and I think several other movies in the list, including Darling, In Fear, Starry Eyes, all of which are contemporary horror films that do know how to mix the genre up in a fresh and surprising way. The Borderlands joins that list, and I hope it inspires others to take horror further into the unknown.
Written by: Stephen Radford
website: stephenradford.com
Next: 18th October: Near Dark
