BORDERLAND

(A.k.a. AL LIMITE DEL TERROR)

A tense, grisly pre-credits prologue sets the scene with Satanists , led by the eerie-looking Gustavo (Marco Bacuzzi) cornering inquisitive investigators in a spooky house and harvesting their organs in gory detail (nice eye gouging), before the film then starts proper in Galveston, Texas "one year later".

We meet a group of travelling students, taking a break from their summer trek by partying at night on a beach. The next morning, three of the lads - Ed (Brian Presley), Phil (Rider Strong) and Henry (Jake Muxworthy) - resume their journey through Mexico, wasting no time in finding the nearest red light district and stopping for a drink in a strip club.

When Ed witnesses barmaid Valeria (Martha Higareda) getting abused by a customer, he steps in, and gets slashed across the stomach for his troubles. Valeria takes him behind the club and tends to his wound, allowing for a tender relationship to develop between the two of them.

Afterwards, Ed meets with his friends in a different bar for more beers. Henry's giving Phil a hard time for having developed feelings for prostitute Lupe (Francesca Guillen), who he slept with the evening before. But then Lupe and Valeria turn up to join the guys, and suddenly chauvinistic Henry is the odd one out.

The guys continue to party at a fairground that evening, with Ed and Phil continuing to grow closer to their respective girls.

But the opening scene of the film has already warned us that something wicked is lurking in Mexico, and we just know the good vibes are due to be overshadowed some time soon by a carefully orchestrated meeting with Satanists ...

Beautifully shot by Scott Kevan, well scripted by Eric Poppen and director Zev Berman, and expertly edited by Eric Strand - BORDERLAND is an unexpectedly well-made film. It's technically superb and frequently elegant, while sufficiently dark and atmospheric even during its lighter moments to keep you primed for the horrors to come.

And when they do come, Berman continues to keep an assured hold over his material. Thankfully free from any post-modernism or "ironic" humour, the terror in BORDERLAND is of a distressingly plausible and human nature. People are tortured and things get awfully bloody, but this is not torture porn. Nothing is gratuitous; this is, unfortunately, sticking to the facts ...

You see, BORDERLAND is loosely based on a true crime from 1989. Apparently a group who called themselves "narcosatanicos" went around Mexico slaughtering people so they could later use the dead bodies as part of their Satanic rituals.

Making a sinister, stylish horror film out of such raw, relatively recent material is perhaps a contentious career choice. But Berman exonerates himself by delivering a film of consideration, power and emotional depth.

While it is at times sensational in it's depiction of violence, the commentary track reveals how this was just intended to stay true to the information presented on the true-life case, and when you see Berman in the copious extras you're inclined to believe he's being sincere.

Despite an unfortunate tendency to sound similar to HOSTEL on paper, Henry's unsympathetic character and a couple of needlessly flashy camera tricks (slowed-down film; reversed footage), BOREDERLAND is very satisfying indeed.

BORDERLAND is presented uncut in it's original 2.35:1 ratio, and is enhanced for 16x9 TV sets. The picture quality is marvellous, with strong blacks and really vibrant colours throughout. Grain is minimal and details are consistently fine.

Audio is presented in a mix of English and Spanish, and gets a rousing 5.1 treatment. Optional English subtitles are free from obvious errors and easy to read. The subtitles are only provided for the English dialogue, which may nark some. It could however be reasoned that the non-translation of the Spanish dialogue (there's not that much) enables the viewer to share the alienation and disorientation of the American protagonists.

A nice animated main menu leads into a static scene-selection menu allowing access to the film via 21 chapters.

Extras begin with a good, refreshingly honest commentary track from Berman, Presley, Kevan and producer Lauren Moews (although only Berman's appearance is advertised on the disc). A little self-congratulatory at times, he nevertheless offers a fair amount of interesting background information that low-budget filmmakers will no doubt lap up.

The original trailer is a somewhat murky 2-minute affair, presented in anamorphic 1.85:1.

"Webisodes" comprises of 6 blogs charting the progress of the 2007 Miss Horrorfest contest. These come with their own sub-menu allowing you to either watch them individually or as a 19-minute whole. Bizarre stuff, courtesy of the After Dark Horror Fest.

"Rituals De Sangre" is much better - a 29-minute documentary that charts the true case that inspired the film, largely narrated by George Gavito, the Sherriff who investigated the crimes at the time. Specifically this engrossing featurette looks into the murder of a student (not named anywhere on the disc, presumably for good reason), which brought the other crimes to prominence.

"Inside Zev's Head" is an entertaining and surprisingly worthy 20-minute featurette following the director on the shoot of BORDERLAND. Filled with behind-the-scenes footage, copious stills and good talking-head interview footage with Berman, this offers a great insight into the talented filmmaker's motivations.

The disc opens with trailers for the remake of THE CRAZIES (which actually doesn't look that bad), Russell Mulcahy's violent noir pastiche GIVE 'EM HELL MALONE and BITCH SLAP - which looks like a cross between MAD MAX 2 and FASTER PUSSYCAT KILL KILL, with bad Tarantino one-liners thrown in for good measure.

BORDERLAND is a surprisingly effective film that pinpoints Berman as a director to look out for in the future. The disc from Momentum is an excellent one, on a par with the Region 1 disc from Lions Gate.

Recommended.

Review by Stuart Willis