Review of Borderland (2007) by Moe R — 22 Sep 2012

A boring trifle of a "realistic" horror film that tries to pair gritty, "Traffic"-esque scenes of drug cadres run amok with hintings of a supernatural menace underlying the cartels' brutal actions. "Borderland" succeeds at neither.

Three bland college buddies (who barely seem to like each other, so the movie's supposition that they're best friends is difficult to believe) take a trip to Mexico as a graduation present before they scatter to the winds. There's Ed (Brian Presley), the sensitive dogooder; Henry (Jake Muxworthy, the only one of the heroes with even a modicum of charisma or talent), the crass, foul-mouthed "ugly American" who seems like a half-cocked critique of Northerners' attitude toward those who live below the borderline; and Phil (Rider Strong), the hopeless romantic virgin who instantly falls in love with a prostitute and fortunately doesn't have much screentime because the gormless little puppy dog gets kidnapped by sinister narco-satanists.

Rounding out the protagonists is Valeria (Martha Higareda), Ed's obligatory love interest, and semi-retired Mexico City police officer Ulises (Damian Alcazar), man who came face-to-face with the cartel and lived to tell about it -- barely -- with only a limp and a head full of bad memories to show.

Most of the movie comprises the Americans' and their campadres' search for the captured Phil while bits and pieces of the crime syndicate's plot are revealed. Suffice to say it's a cartel-cum-religious cult hoping to spill the blood of a gringo, which is sufficient to "bless" their drugs to get north of the border (because we all know narcotics just don't make it to the United States any other way); apparently these drugrunners learned nothing from their spiritual predecessors on Summerisle about the efficacy of human sacrifice as a means to advance one's livelihood.

The actual crimes of Mexican and Central American drug syndicates make the events in "Borderland" look like child's play, with the exception of a legitimately harrowing if overlong sequence where one of the heroes is stalked through a motel by a pack of machete-wielding psychos which ends badly for the hunted. Otherwise, it's a negligible that does reality poorly and fantasy horror lazily.