After Dark 2007: Borderlands

Borderlands

We closed the first night with one of my least favorite genres: The crazy cult coming to cill, er, kill you genre. These were big in the '70s and were usually unpleasant affairs, both predictable and unsatisfying. They also tended to feature, as a “twist”, an actual appearance by Satan or some other demon at the end.

So I sat down to this one—which had a dismal 3.8 rating on IMDB—with more than a little trepidation. And the beginning is grotesque, probably the goriest thing we saw all weekend. Yet the movie holds together by being dedicated in its realism and tightly focused. (It claims to be “based on true events”.)

Brian Presley, Jeff Muxworthy and Rider Strong play three post-grads on a “last fling” to Mexico who fall afoul of a Santeria cult looking for, em, emotive contributors to their black magic. The cast is rounded out with excellent performances by Sean Astin (in an almost Dennis Hopper-ish role), and Mexican actors Damian Alcazar and the gorgeous Martha Higareda.

The cultists are menacing and arrogant, with my favorite being Marco Bacuzzi, who reminds very strongly of the great Michael Berryman. And yet, there's no cheating: The director doesn't try to straddle the line convincing you these guys are supernatural; he gives you the facts, and dares you to believe them.

The film is actually only marred by (God help me, I'm not making this up) a political statement. Muxworthy plays jerky, greedy, Republican Henry who hates the poor and can't figure out why his friend Ed wants to go dig ditches in Malawi. He also talks trash and buckles when the pressure is on.

I suppose with Joe Dante's shameless episode of “Masters of Horror” (“Homecoming”), even horror can't be spared the daily grind of partisanship. But I have to wonder: With party enrollment dropping to all-time lows, does it really make sense to possibly alienate most of your audience? (I'm a decline-to-state and always have been, and I was appalled by the gratuitous slap.)

Besides, if he'd really been a Republican, he would have had a gun, right?

OK, enough stereotyping. Zev Berman is clearly a talented director with a good eye for story. Let's hope he uses it to make good movies rather than making “important” movies.

This was Day 1 for us, and Borderlands ended it on a high note. Day 2 would be less enjoyable, unfortunately.