Director: Elliot Goldner
Year: 2013
Country: United Kingdom
Alternate Titles: The Borderlands
Genre: Supernatural
Plot:
Following a series of radical claims, paranormal investigators from the Vatican are sent to a remote Church in the English countryside to investigate what’s going on, but the longer they’re there realize that something unnatural is occurring in the area and must uncover the truth before it’s too late.
Review:
This was a generally underwhelming and not that impressive found-footage effort. One of the few positives here stems from the generally creepy and unnatural atmosphere of the chosen location, which manages to form a decidedly obvious location for the hauntings to happen. With the backstory of the location also plays a nice part here where the use of local history and the types of religious extremism that took place in the past as a way of converting the locals into the proper Catholic mindset approved by the Vatican only now it feels like something from the past has come back to wreak havoc on the land, this is an appropriately fun play on that type of film. Utilizing that in the Church itself, where the darkened catacombs and hallways where the events take place, offers a fine way of propelling this one along as the final half manages to bring about a far greater sense of action and scares within the place as everything unfolds. However great this is, though, it’s really the only good thing that happens here.
There are a lot of issues here that hold this one down. One of the main issues with this one is that there’s no real discernible reason for it to be shot in found footage, as that really hampers a lot of what’s happening here. The first half detailing the group arriving at the facility, going through the usual set-up and general preparations that go on for them to get ready to investigate the claims, offers a slew of traditionally bland build-up leading to the furious second half, but hardly any of this is justifiably found-footage. The exploits and investigation that take place here in the second half aren’t worthy of being done through the camera work featured here, and since the only scenes that really showcase any kind of supernatural or other form of genre material are found in the final half because the first few scenes are generally quite uneventful this one really struggles to keep the belief going about it not being filmed regularly to help cut down on the unnecessary boredom that occurs since nothing happens for so long.
Overview: *.5/5
A generally underwhelming and not that enthralling genre effort, this one has a few big factors that hold it down, as a couple of positives are all that keep this from the lower rung of the genre. This is really only recommended to fans of this style or appreciate found-footage films, while those turned off by those factors or the negative issues should heed caution here.
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