With all the 'found footage' around these days, creating something fresh and interesting is pretty tough. The Borderlands is not exactly original but it is very well made.
The movie shows two guys, a Deacon and an audio/visual tech heading to a small church in a rural area, where some weird stuff (referred to in the movie as a possible miracle), was caught on camera and needs validating by the Vatican.
The religious guys involved seem hell-bent on disproving the incident whereas the atheist is only interested in facts. At any rate, they are heading towards the same fate ... which proves to be pretty chilling when we get to it.
Goldner has got the pacing just about perfect in this movie and steered clear of tedious jump-scares which plague the likes of Paranormal Activity and other mainstream camcorder productions. The plot is interesting and maintains believability in not trying to explain what's going on in pseudo religious/scientific jargon. It rightly lets us make up our minds.
A nice theme running throughout is the non-stereotypical way in which the atheists religious guys interact. The atheist is far more willing to accept that some freaky stuff is going down in The Church than the priests, who repeatedly turn to science to explain it away. It's almost as if the priests are so accustomed to their day job that they forget the bigger picture.
The script is witty and engaging, with Gray's character especially so: a typically British guy just getting on with things, whilst caught in the middle of a lot of Vatican politics. To me it feels like the writers spent a long time getting things right; these lower budget productions can be awfully thin without some intelligence in the writing.
All in all, this is still just a found-footage movie, so don't go expecting the next Conjuring or Sinister or you might be disappointed. To the fans of Blair Witch and Grave Encounters, you should make your next outing to The Borderlands.
The movie shows two guys, a Deacon and an audio/visual tech heading to a small church in a rural area, where some weird stuff (referred to in the movie as a possible miracle), was caught on camera and needs validating by the Vatican.
The religious guys involved seem hell-bent on disproving the incident whereas the atheist is only interested in facts. At any rate, they are heading towards the same fate ... which proves to be pretty chilling when we get to it.
Goldner has got the pacing just about perfect in this movie and steered clear of tedious jump-scares which plague the likes of Paranormal Activity and other mainstream camcorder productions. The plot is interesting and maintains believability in not trying to explain what's going on in pseudo religious/scientific jargon. It rightly lets us make up our minds.
A nice theme running throughout is the non-stereotypical way in which the atheists religious guys interact. The atheist is far more willing to accept that some freaky stuff is going down in The Church than the priests, who repeatedly turn to science to explain it away. It's almost as if the priests are so accustomed to their day job that they forget the bigger picture.
The script is witty and engaging, with Gray's character especially so: a typically British guy just getting on with things, whilst caught in the middle of a lot of Vatican politics. To me it feels like the writers spent a long time getting things right; these lower budget productions can be awfully thin without some intelligence in the writing.
All in all, this is still just a found-footage movie, so don't go expecting the next Conjuring or Sinister or you might be disappointed. To the fans of Blair Witch and Grave Encounters, you should make your next outing to The Borderlands.