the borderlands

the borderlands (a.k.a final prayer) is a british found footage movie about three men working for the vatican who are tasked with verifying a supposed miracle that occured in a small village church in england. the team includes two priests, mark (aidan mcardle) and deacon (gordon kennedy), and a technician, grey (robin hill), who is responsible for ensuring that everything is recorded. however, not long after the team arrive they being to realise that they may be more to the alleged miracle than first reported.

the first thing that struck me about the borderlands was the familiarity of the setting. i've been to countless small villages like the one in this film, in fact it's not dissimilar to the village in devon where my dad lives. i've always been fascinated with small village churches too, and there is something about quiet, old buildings that's kind of creepy. this film plays on that creepiness perfectly.

the set-up is really interesting and works well for the story. the characters are well-written and acted too, particularly grey and deacon. despite their unusual profession, both characters come across like real people just trying to get a job done. robin hill is particularly great as grey and really puts across a sense of a being your average techie thrown into a very unusual situation. grey's atheism is also an interesting character point, which leads to some interesting debates that are played out in the film.

the horror or supernatural element is really held back in this film, very much to its credit. there are some nice, almost hidden suggestions of spooky goings-on that are really there for the audience to see and not the characters. when things do kick off it's quite unsettling but all of this is really building up to one of the greatest and most terrifying horror endings i've seen in a while. the last five minutes of this film are truly disturbing and it's worth a watch just to experience that moment.

i really enjoyed this one and would definitely recommend you check it out. plus, it's nice to have a british film on the list as there don't seem to be too many found footage films being made over here right now.

the found footage blogathon will run from throughout february, in which time i plan to review as many films as possible and maybe throw in a few extras as well. if you'd like to be involved and post your own content, send me a link via twitter with the tag #foundfootageblogathon. i'll retweet your link and will include it in a summary post next week. you can find a full list of the films i'll be reviewing here.

found footage horror blogathon...

i love found footage horror movies. i know there are too many of them and the majority of them aren't great, but that's true of all horror films. and like all horror films, the good found footage films are truly amazing. lake mungo, for example, is possibly the scariest film i've seen in recent years and the one i most often recommend to people. i love the classics too; i think blair witch project and paranormal activity are really impressive pieces of work. what makes the good ones standout is that the filmmakers actually work really hard to make it look like they didn't work really hard. i mean there was clearly a lot of time and effort put into the execution and the performances in those films, and in many ways i think they're possibly harder to produce than their big budget counterparts.

anyway, the point of all this is that i have amassed a small collection of found footage horror movies that i haven't had time to watch yet -

there are even more that have been released on v.o.d. recently that i'd really like to see. so i thought rather than locking myself away for a week while i watch endless hours of shaky cameras and characters asking each other 'why are you still filming this?' i would share the experience. i'm going to list the films i'm planning on watching below. my aim is to get through these before the end of february. i'll post a mini review of each film and you can follow me on twitter for my live thoughts (@pazvsstuff).

in addition, if you have a blog or a youtube channel or any other internet thing that you use to share your views on stuff, you too can post your thoughts on found footage horror movies. you could review one of the films listed below, or talk about your thoughts on the genre in general or even just talk about how much i'm wasting my time for attempting something like this. send me the links to anything you post and i'll share them at the time and list them all here once it's over. or tweet me with the tag #foundfootageblogathon

here, in no particular order, is the current list of films i'm aiming to watch -

noroi - the curse
creep
open windows
unfriended
afflicted
the borderlands
evil things
the sacrament
vhs viral
the houses of halloween
skinwalkers
the cutting room
starvecrow
as above so below
the taking
the visit
the gallows
delivery - the beast within
europa report
the possession of michael king
mockingbird

that's the plan anyway

who's with me?

@pazvsstuff

#foundfootageblogathon