There’s a certain snobbishness to found regarding found
footage horror movies – unsurprising perhaps, considering the glut of
uninspired Blair Witch wannabes that
have occupied the market in recent years.
Director Elliot Goldner, however, has proved there are still frights to
be had with the genre in his debut film, The Borderlands.
It possibly sounds like the beginning of a very bad joke –
an Englishman, a Scotsman and an Irishman walk into a haunted church – but
that’s the premise at work here. Gordon
Kennedy, who British viewers will recognise from his roles in, well, everything
really plays Deacon, a world wearied priest who has been sent by the Vatican to
investigate a supposed miracle in a small country church. He’s accompanied by fellow priest and Vatican
investigator Mark (Aidan McArdle), and technical expert Gray (Robin Hill) who
kits the team out with the headcams that capture their footage.
And for once there is at least a reason for team’s use of
headcams – although the reasoning behind their entire base camp being fitted
with cameras is perhaps a little muddier.
Still, the in-house cameras capture some distinctly creepy scenes early
on in the film, such as the untimely church bells chiming in the dead of night
and the agonised screams of a sheep that gets set alight by local teenagers,
all of which sets the tone for the rest of the film.
The Borderlands does stick to some familiar horror movies
tropes – characters going off alone into dark buildings, crucifixes crashing
off walls, unwelcoming local villagers who may as well have burning pitchforks
– but for the most part it works well here.
The scene where Deacon runs off to the church on in his own in the
middle of the night might tick every cliché in the “Horror By Numbers” guide to
film-making, but it does also provide some of the movie’s most scary moments. And once again, this time round there is a
genuine reason for it. Deacon is a man
who has a lot to prove after other investigations of his have had terrible consequences. As he desperately tries to unravel exactly
what is happening in the church you at least understand why he heads off into
dark crevices on his own – even if you do still wonder if he’s ever watched a
horror movie before.
If anything, what makes The Borderlands work so well
compared to other found footage movies of recent years is its very MR
James-style Britishness. There are
plenty of beautiful – and vaguely ominous – shots of the English countryside
setting the mood, for a start. And instead
of nubile young Americans screaming down a camera, here we’re watching a couple
of middle aged British men discussing fantastical paranormal happenings over a
couple of pints in the local boozer, which seems to make the film’s events all
the more believable. It’s the central
double act of Deacon and Gray that serves The Borderlands so well – a sort of Peep Show meets Paranormal Activity style relationship providing laughs amid the
ghost hunting.
Notable mention has to go to Robin Hill as Gray, the
agnostic techie who is more amazed and eager to believe in the supernatural
goings on he witness than the two priests, particularly Mark, who is keen to
find a scientific explanation for everything and not drag the church back into
the “dark ages”.
Gordon Kennedy and Aidan McArdle both deliver strong
performances too, although I did feel the film suffered a little from casting
actors who aren’t exactly strangers to mainstream TV shows. Surely it’s more believable to think you’re
watching the found footage of a doomed investigation if you don’t recognise the
men on screen from Sherlock or Mr Selfridge?
That’s a minor complaint though, and is possibly a reflection of me
watching too much television as opposed to what a general movie going audience
might think.
The Borderlands does somewhat lose its way in the final act,
after the arrival of elderly priest Father Calvino (Patrick Godfrey) and the
plot goes, for want of a better phrase, completely mad. However the final scenes, which do owe more
than a passing nod to The Blair Witch
Project, are still thrillingly claustrophobic and deeply unsettling.
