Review of Undocumented (2010) by Joe A — 13 Jun 2012

Undocumented tells the story of 5 film students wanting to make a documentary about the plight of illegal aliens crossing the Mexican border into the U.S. They decide to go to Mexico and travel with a group of illegals into the U.

S. to film the process these desperate people go through to gain a better life. But, when they reach U.S. soil, they are intercepted by a vicious band of racists (claiming to be patriots) who will allow the film students to live as long as they document their heinous acts upon the captured illegals.

It's an interesting premise for a horror film but, writer/director Chris Peckover fails to really make this work for a number of reasons. Most glaring is that we never get to know ANY of the characters enough to to either feel sorry for or hate them.

The students are stereotypical obnoxious and pretentious college students. The villains, led by a man named "Z" (Peter Stormare who remains masked and unrecognizable) are cliche' racist rednecks.

And, worst of all, the illegals are basically there for body count and to fill the sets with prisoners. Peckover misses the point of his own message. How can you take seriously a film speaking out against victimizing illegals when it uses it's illegals purely for the sake of being victimized? The film stops being a film with a moral and just becomes a nasty exploitation flick right under it's own nose.

We see some horrifying acts portrayed but, since all the characters are generic, it is horror that we are never emotionally invested in. Violence for violence sake. Peckover is exploiting the very people he is trying to speak for and he doesn't even realize it.

Even in a film like this, having a live human being inside a pinata is pure exploitation and kinda crass too. So how can I believe Peckover wants me to hear his message about the mistreatment of Mexican illegals, when he is so eager to gruesomely portray them as victims? Let's not forget that our vicious redneck bad guys appear to be so incompetent that it's hard to believe they haven't been caught (One man sent into a room of unsecured prisoners, doors left unlocked, keys left in vehicles.

.. not to mention filming all their atrocities). And finally, the filmmaker is so worried that we won't get certain points, he has his characters often state the obvious just so we don't miss anything.

Nobody likes a movie that implies we are all too stupid to understand it, especially a horror movie. Undocumented does have some effective moments just from the shear brutality of what you're watching but, the very fact that Chris Peckover grossly betrays his own message and exploits the very people whose exploitation he wants to make us aware of, leaves us with nothing but another gruesome yet generic flick about human depravity.