Borderland (2007)
R1 / NTSC DVD
Lionsgate / 2008
Director: Zev Berman
Writer: Eric Poppen, Zev Berman
Cast: Brian Presley, Rider Strong, Martha Higareda, Jake Muxworthy & Sean Astin.
Review by Annie Riordan

Three young buddies decide to head down to Mexico for a few days of drinking and sexing before they head off to college. But the small border town they end up in is held in the grip of fear and ruled over by a vicious, devil-worshipping druglord named Santillian. He, along with his machete-wielding thugs, have been kidnapping and ritualistically sacrificing wayward citizens...and now they want some gringo blood to ensure some big time juju.

Okay, good things first: this is an incredibly bleak, bloody and scuzzy little film, shot in that down-and-dirty grainy Texas Chainsaw Massacre style. The human suffering on display is not for the squeamish, and the agonized screams of the victims are excruciating to hear. However (and here we go with the “bad” things) the victims are hopeless stereotypes - i.e. the dweeby virgin, scuzzy asshole and heroic everyman - and the script wanders into unoriginal twaddle-land once too often. The plot is pretty predictable and contains more than one frustrating “Oh come ON, just KILL HIM already!” moment. That said, this is still a couple of steps above your run-of-the-mill slasher pic, and it’s GREAT fun to see Samwise Gamgee (aka Sean Astin) play a sweaty psychopathic pig!

• Screen Format: Widescreen 1.77:1 / Color
• Audio: English / Dolby Stereo Surround Sound 5.1
• Subtitles: English, Spanish
• Running time: 106 mins.

• Audio Commentary
  Featurette - "Ritual de Sangre - The Story of the Real Cult Murder Investigation"
• Text/Photo Galleries
• Director's Diary

Vicious gore, gritty locales, strong n’ sexy female characters and an absolutely horrific opening sequence that packs a nasty punch. All in all? Pretty good. Not great, but definitely worth a viewing. Fans of Hostel will probably dig it.

“An impressive meat-grinder of a movie!”