Good POV style horror with a great balance of realism and demonic supernaturalism with one of the most horrifying endings I can recall.
95 Reviews
WTF ENDING.
andrewchristianjr25 August 2021
One of the best British horror films in a long time
InaneSwine20 February 2016
The Borderlands is one of the better found-footage films that has come out of late, and is one of the best British horror films to come out in a seriously long time.
Initially a little unconvincing, and with a slightly irritating character played by Robin Hill, it may take a short while to settle into. But as events unfold and things get darker, I guarantee you will be glued to the screen, as creepy and sinister becomes terrifying and horrific. The acting is great, the tension never falters, and the ending is one of the nastiest to feature in a horror film in years. A good film.
Initially a little unconvincing, and with a slightly irritating character played by Robin Hill, it may take a short while to settle into. But as events unfold and things get darker, I guarantee you will be glued to the screen, as creepy and sinister becomes terrifying and horrific. The acting is great, the tension never falters, and the ending is one of the nastiest to feature in a horror film in years. A good film.
Fun and Fear
horizon20089 April 2014
I gotta say, The Borderlands is actually very funny in places, they took a great risk tying together humour and scares but for some bizarre reason, it certainly works.
I fully enjoyed both elements of the film, and it's acted really, really well (and filmed the same). The tale follows some investigators sent by the Vatican to check out a claim by a local priest of a possession in an old church. One of the investigators isn't a religious man however, just a tech guy there to do all the video stuff etc. Hes the funny one, and I kinda felt the humour amplified the scares when they came. When it gets to a screaming sheep set on fire (yes really) it is quite shocking as it's unexpected. And from there it swings from light hearted banter (never forced) to heavy shocks. I enjoyed it, and thought I wouldn't. Definitely worth a watch.
I fully enjoyed both elements of the film, and it's acted really, really well (and filmed the same). The tale follows some investigators sent by the Vatican to check out a claim by a local priest of a possession in an old church. One of the investigators isn't a religious man however, just a tech guy there to do all the video stuff etc. Hes the funny one, and I kinda felt the humour amplified the scares when they came. When it gets to a screaming sheep set on fire (yes really) it is quite shocking as it's unexpected. And from there it swings from light hearted banter (never forced) to heavy shocks. I enjoyed it, and thought I wouldn't. Definitely worth a watch.
The middle of nowhere without aspirins
Gretchen_X30 October 2018
A small team of investigators head off to a typical English village to find out what's been going on in the church. Apparently The Vatican are the ones asking the questions, which is questionable in that it all seems very Anglican. Still, nice to know that the His Holiness is willing to allocate resources to the C of E ; clearly the manifestion of Evil is a universal issue.
It's really the familar 'Most Haunted' style set up, but with some new angles, particularly with the technology. And there's the sceptic guy/veteran guy double act, which is played with good humour and minimal exposition. Later on explanations are offered as characters' suggestions and therefore explorable, not the clumsily implausible to be found in lesser works.
The supernatural occupiers, rather than wanting to communicate, seem to be mostly interested in throwing stuff around. Spooky but grainy visuals which don't tread on the toes of your imagination abound.
The script is witty and interesting. In a particularly good scene where one character is reading from a dusty old witness journal the material is exceptionally well conceived and poetic. These few moments are worth your full attention. If you like that sort of thing.
I also enjoyed the photography - scenes from the front of a speeding car down a narrow lane put the viewer right in the middle of the action - again, something which someone appears to have taken care over.
What I found most surprising was the quality of the acting. In most cases films in this bracket only have the budget for one decent actor, so to find two or three among the tombstones was a bonus.
It's a pretty much a sausagefest, the only exception I spotted a background girl who went to the aid of a boy in cameo. Unusual these days. But this just means the screaming is lower pitch.
The plot unfolds in a measured way while the action accelerates; the final scenes are a bit of an endurance test, especially if like me you have a bit of a phobia. It is testimony to the excellent execution that I became very uncomfortable and internally urged them to call a retreat, because the way back was evaporating. That such a location exists is in itself a kind of horror.
Fans of low budget goreless Brit fodder will have this gem in their collection.
I hope to see lots more like this from Elliot Goldner.
It's really the familar 'Most Haunted' style set up, but with some new angles, particularly with the technology. And there's the sceptic guy/veteran guy double act, which is played with good humour and minimal exposition. Later on explanations are offered as characters' suggestions and therefore explorable, not the clumsily implausible to be found in lesser works.
The supernatural occupiers, rather than wanting to communicate, seem to be mostly interested in throwing stuff around. Spooky but grainy visuals which don't tread on the toes of your imagination abound.
The script is witty and interesting. In a particularly good scene where one character is reading from a dusty old witness journal the material is exceptionally well conceived and poetic. These few moments are worth your full attention. If you like that sort of thing.
I also enjoyed the photography - scenes from the front of a speeding car down a narrow lane put the viewer right in the middle of the action - again, something which someone appears to have taken care over.
What I found most surprising was the quality of the acting. In most cases films in this bracket only have the budget for one decent actor, so to find two or three among the tombstones was a bonus.
It's a pretty much a sausagefest, the only exception I spotted a background girl who went to the aid of a boy in cameo. Unusual these days. But this just means the screaming is lower pitch.
The plot unfolds in a measured way while the action accelerates; the final scenes are a bit of an endurance test, especially if like me you have a bit of a phobia. It is testimony to the excellent execution that I became very uncomfortable and internally urged them to call a retreat, because the way back was evaporating. That such a location exists is in itself a kind of horror.
Fans of low budget goreless Brit fodder will have this gem in their collection.
I hope to see lots more like this from Elliot Goldner.
Creepy, Claustrophobic, Anxiety and heart palpitations
leilaesxx17 September 2015
A low budget British gem that delivers. Don't let the found- footage sub-genre put you off as this isn't your typical-shaky-cam film.
I love the way the friendship develops between the two leads. Deacon, the cynic is having doubts about his faith and spends half the film finding solace in the bottom of a wine bottle. Grey, the cheeky-geezerish bloke who you take an instant like to, though not a believer per se, Grey can't entirely discount the possibility of a more cosmic force guiding our lives in unseen ways. Together they uncover a sinister truth more horrifying than either of them could have imagined.
The film has ambition that transcends its meager budgetary constraints. There are some terrifically unsettling set-pieces
It uses gore sparingly, focusing more on claustrophobic chills and general edit room trickery to build up a picture of a world on the verge of ripping itself apart.
The ending will probably stay with you for some time. I still feel uneasy just thinking about it.
Enjoy!
I love the way the friendship develops between the two leads. Deacon, the cynic is having doubts about his faith and spends half the film finding solace in the bottom of a wine bottle. Grey, the cheeky-geezerish bloke who you take an instant like to, though not a believer per se, Grey can't entirely discount the possibility of a more cosmic force guiding our lives in unseen ways. Together they uncover a sinister truth more horrifying than either of them could have imagined.
The film has ambition that transcends its meager budgetary constraints. There are some terrifically unsettling set-pieces
It uses gore sparingly, focusing more on claustrophobic chills and general edit room trickery to build up a picture of a world on the verge of ripping itself apart.
The ending will probably stay with you for some time. I still feel uneasy just thinking about it.
Enjoy!
A little messy but still worth a watch
kuarinofu8 August 2020
The Borderlands is a nice take at FF horror story.
It definitely has its moments, and even though the ending is a little messy, it still delivers good claustrophobic scares.
There are some interesting details here and there, and overall you can kinda see how the characters called this kind of horrible ending upon themselves.
This really feels like a well-done urban legend or a dark fairy tale someone would tell you to scare you sitting near a campfire on a dark night.
Worth a watch.
It definitely has its moments, and even though the ending is a little messy, it still delivers good claustrophobic scares.
There are some interesting details here and there, and overall you can kinda see how the characters called this kind of horrible ending upon themselves.
This really feels like a well-done urban legend or a dark fairy tale someone would tell you to scare you sitting near a campfire on a dark night.
Worth a watch.
Disappointing
mcdonald_jules20 March 2017
I'm glad i watched this on BBC iPlayer and didn't waste a trip to the cinema. It was embarrassingly badly acted. The story line was promising but didn't deliver. The filming technique was disorientating and annoying. It was full of horror clichés but done badly. I didn't like the "unfriendly locals" stereotype. The Tech character was an excruciating caricature of a Tech bloke. It would have worked better if we could have seen the wires and the whole thing had been filmed as a spoof documentary.
Not a great horror, but worth watching for some great horror
eonbluedan-119 April 2014
Last year a film was released named 'In Fear', which managed to make the premise of two people getting lost in a maze of country roads as night draws in surprisingly creepy and gripping, before the final act gave way to a more pedestrian nature and the film lost its footing. 'The Borderlands', a British entry into the canon of handy-cam/found footage horror, manages to work it the other way round. Not to say the first hour or so is pedestrian as such, but going by the premise, no doubt many people will think they have seen it all before and skip this film. They would be partly right, although to the film's credit, it manages to tread that old ground with a good enough script and performances to not seem tired.
Deacon, Gray and Mark are Vatican sanctioned, paranormal investigators who arrive in a small, west country town to look into a claim of miracles at a local, old church. Things take a darker turn as their investigation leads them to increasingly unrealistic scientific explanations for the claim. The characters are very real and their relationship is not weighed down by forced efforts to be unnecessarily scary. Indeed, there is an occasional moment of brevity and humour between them, which nicely offsets the apparently tedious nature of their job; one could draw a comparison with the first act of Neil Marshall's 'The Descent', coincidentally another well regarded British horror. Another intelligent point arises in the form of the characters' set of beliefs; refreshingly, it is the agnostic technical supervisor who is most inclined to believe the extraordinary explanation, whilst the believers are the ones jaded by the claims so often proved false. It must also be said that where in other, similar fare, the explanation of the use of home video cameras and the like seems forced and a little intrusive, here it makes perfect sense and you do actually forget that is what you are watching.
Then we hit the last 20 minutes! Some earlier chatter about belief proves to not just be screenplay-filling fodder, but real groundwork that actually comes back to bite hard in claustrophobic scenes. This final act's power to disturb is akin to the final moments of 'The Blair Witch Project', 'Rosemary's Baby', or perhaps more pertinently 'The Wicker Man', to which the smart screenplay has actually made humorous and perhaps not purely incidental reference. In these cases, the horrible reality of the story is made truly tangible in such a way as to cause a palpable discomfort within the gut of the audience; it creates a creeping unease that is hard to express in words. So it is the case with 'The Borderlands', although how unnerved you are is not completely clear until after the film, when the imagery of the idea being brought to its fruition cements in your mind's eye, and as with Edward Woodward's final, defiant yelling, or Mia Farrow's famous last lines, a character's dreadful cries become horribly haunting in a way that is tough to shake off simply by saying, "It's only a movie'.
'The Borderlands' is not overcooked and has much about it that will probably be admired by fans of writer/director Ben Wheatley, who is maybe most noted right now for 'Kill List'. Overall, not one we might call a great horror film, but without doubt, within the film are moments of great horror!
Deacon, Gray and Mark are Vatican sanctioned, paranormal investigators who arrive in a small, west country town to look into a claim of miracles at a local, old church. Things take a darker turn as their investigation leads them to increasingly unrealistic scientific explanations for the claim. The characters are very real and their relationship is not weighed down by forced efforts to be unnecessarily scary. Indeed, there is an occasional moment of brevity and humour between them, which nicely offsets the apparently tedious nature of their job; one could draw a comparison with the first act of Neil Marshall's 'The Descent', coincidentally another well regarded British horror. Another intelligent point arises in the form of the characters' set of beliefs; refreshingly, it is the agnostic technical supervisor who is most inclined to believe the extraordinary explanation, whilst the believers are the ones jaded by the claims so often proved false. It must also be said that where in other, similar fare, the explanation of the use of home video cameras and the like seems forced and a little intrusive, here it makes perfect sense and you do actually forget that is what you are watching.
Then we hit the last 20 minutes! Some earlier chatter about belief proves to not just be screenplay-filling fodder, but real groundwork that actually comes back to bite hard in claustrophobic scenes. This final act's power to disturb is akin to the final moments of 'The Blair Witch Project', 'Rosemary's Baby', or perhaps more pertinently 'The Wicker Man', to which the smart screenplay has actually made humorous and perhaps not purely incidental reference. In these cases, the horrible reality of the story is made truly tangible in such a way as to cause a palpable discomfort within the gut of the audience; it creates a creeping unease that is hard to express in words. So it is the case with 'The Borderlands', although how unnerved you are is not completely clear until after the film, when the imagery of the idea being brought to its fruition cements in your mind's eye, and as with Edward Woodward's final, defiant yelling, or Mia Farrow's famous last lines, a character's dreadful cries become horribly haunting in a way that is tough to shake off simply by saying, "It's only a movie'.
'The Borderlands' is not overcooked and has much about it that will probably be admired by fans of writer/director Ben Wheatley, who is maybe most noted right now for 'Kill List'. Overall, not one we might call a great horror film, but without doubt, within the film are moments of great horror!
Superior Found Footage shocker with an unsettling ending
mwilson197617 March 2019
A superior found footage horror movie that is heavy on atmosphere rather than scares, and is all the more unsettling for it. A team of Vatican investigators is sent to the British countryside following reports of paranormal activity at a remote church. They encounter hostile locals who set fire to sheep as events start to take a darker turn, and they discover far too late that something much more sinister and ancient has been awakened.
Awful
badscene3 March 2019
I don't understand the positive reviews here.
This was trite, poorly executed, and mind numbingly simplistic. It has nothing to say and inspires to do nothing short of carve its way into what little room is left in the religious found footage horror niche. That said, those comparing this to the Exorcist should have their internet taken away because they need a time out.
I found the characters all to be flat and the acting to be below average. The film definitely falls victim to that forced realism you find so often in these often partially unscripted found footage films, wherein amateur actors are trying so hard to make unneccesarily mundane interactions between one another come off as natural, that it has the complete opposite effect, which is amateurish and cringeworthy. The sets are depressingly lazy and unflattering, as are the array of cargo shorts and camo decked rags that hang off the unphotogenic actors.
The glitchy camera effect cliche is overdone, and there really is no resolution. I was never scared, intrigued, interested, or provoked into thought. This is religious horror for dummies.
There are some claustraphobic scenes toward the end which I found effective, but that's owed largely to the setting in which it was shot, a series of catacomb like tunnels. Try harder next time. I hated this.
This was trite, poorly executed, and mind numbingly simplistic. It has nothing to say and inspires to do nothing short of carve its way into what little room is left in the religious found footage horror niche. That said, those comparing this to the Exorcist should have their internet taken away because they need a time out.
I found the characters all to be flat and the acting to be below average. The film definitely falls victim to that forced realism you find so often in these often partially unscripted found footage films, wherein amateur actors are trying so hard to make unneccesarily mundane interactions between one another come off as natural, that it has the complete opposite effect, which is amateurish and cringeworthy. The sets are depressingly lazy and unflattering, as are the array of cargo shorts and camo decked rags that hang off the unphotogenic actors.
The glitchy camera effect cliche is overdone, and there really is no resolution. I was never scared, intrigued, interested, or provoked into thought. This is religious horror for dummies.
There are some claustraphobic scenes toward the end which I found effective, but that's owed largely to the setting in which it was shot, a series of catacomb like tunnels. Try harder next time. I hated this.
Above average footage style low on gore high on mystery and creeps
jonnytheshirt20 May 2014
This is a generous 8 many because its low budget and particularly for some reason it just hit the spot for me. I'm a veteran horror movie buff and started watching this 'found footage' style movie with a meh, another one. It isn't actually found footage but more a footage style in that due to the Vatican team experiencing some grizzly occurrences previously the Vatican wants everything filmed as part of new regulations. Hence we have characters with camera headsets on and fixed static cameras in places. All the shots are then taken from these points of view so we do experience some viewing as what the characters see but it's a tool not 'found footage' so shaky cam does not go over the top. Its a bit of a slow burner but sucked me in unexpectedly within minutes. There's something quite natural about the lead characters and its so far removed from the majority of US generic stuff that I was totally intrigued instantly. This movie also did something very rare - it creeped me out. Everything is quite subtle even the humour and religious and life philosophy is touched upon in what seems like normal interactive banter. It had me guessing all the way through and surprised me with its ending, which I was even able to trace back many subtle references to throughout the movie. I actually laughed as it is very rare I'm surprised by a movies ending. If you want pizzaz and action and gore this is not for you I've never actually read HP Lovecraft but I think this is something somewhat in that vein. A kinda creepy slow burning mystery would suit the description and there is not one single young attractive woman who can't run straight without falling over in it.
Solid but uninspiring horror.
fstapleton-7554312 June 2019
So we have good acting, script, creepy atmosphere and good use is made of the multiple camera set up. So far so good. But then we get every cliche you can think of in a team investigating strange activity in a remote church. Unoriginal with a weak backstory to explain things. Still well made with some good scares and certainly worth a look.
Childish clichéd rubbish
johnlynham-563719 November 2018
Hardcore Enthusiasts of this Genre Would Definitely Understand Better!
SoumikBanerjee199618 June 2021
"The Borderlands" strictly capitalizes orthodox tropes of horror fundamentals! Places of Worship, Altars, Demonic Activities; all standard textbook stuff! Now mix it up with British Humor, A creepy church house & an engaging cast; and Voila you get yourself a fairly decent piece of work!
Everything's not been flawless though like they never come to be! This too had its fair share of issues and almost all of them come forth due to its rather inferior writing! Especially as we move towards the end. Which, in all honesty; gave the impression of asininity & impreciseness!
Albeit a bit outstretched, luckily; we got enough suspense, shocks & fiery character moments to sail us through the entire runtime! In a nutshell, this is an above average execution that would only appeal to enthusiasts and to those who have a soft spot for this specific genre!
Everything's not been flawless though like they never come to be! This too had its fair share of issues and almost all of them come forth due to its rather inferior writing! Especially as we move towards the end. Which, in all honesty; gave the impression of asininity & impreciseness!
Albeit a bit outstretched, luckily; we got enough suspense, shocks & fiery character moments to sail us through the entire runtime! In a nutshell, this is an above average execution that would only appeal to enthusiasts and to those who have a soft spot for this specific genre!
Too little to offer.
Patient4447 April 2014
Well at least it is better than "Heretic" cause it does offer some tension, but still fails flat. For around 60 minutes, nothing kinda happens, just some shots, some jokes, and afterwards it does deliver for a B- found footage horror.
Lately I've seen some good such movies, like "Wer", "Alien abduction" or "Banshee chapter" but this one fails to deliver big time, you just wait and wait till you can't decide either to skip it forward or just end it. It is a weak attempt that goes hand in hand with "Children of sorrow" or "The Paranormal Diaries: Clophill", it will bore you out of your mind. The end couldn't save it, the premise, those black-out moments, nothing, it's one of the bad ones sadly.
So I'll recommend to stay away from "The borderlands" and do try something else. Shame to waste the time like this.
Cheers!
Lately I've seen some good such movies, like "Wer", "Alien abduction" or "Banshee chapter" but this one fails to deliver big time, you just wait and wait till you can't decide either to skip it forward or just end it. It is a weak attempt that goes hand in hand with "Children of sorrow" or "The Paranormal Diaries: Clophill", it will bore you out of your mind. The end couldn't save it, the premise, those black-out moments, nothing, it's one of the bad ones sadly.
So I'll recommend to stay away from "The borderlands" and do try something else. Shame to waste the time like this.
Cheers!
Boring and silly
brynyoung7713 April 2014
I had high hopes for this film as the trailer looked promising however I was wrong.
The story is so slow and ends up going nowhere and the ending! well I must have missed something because it made no sense.
3 priests go on a ghost buster adventure to an old English church, doesn't sound too bad but it is.
Any positive reviews of this film must have been made by the family of the cast.
I gave 2/10 and i'm being nice.
Honestly save your money.
The story is so slow and ends up going nowhere and the ending! well I must have missed something because it made no sense.
3 priests go on a ghost buster adventure to an old English church, doesn't sound too bad but it is.
Any positive reviews of this film must have been made by the family of the cast.
I gave 2/10 and i'm being nice.
Honestly save your money.
An intelligent movie with a chilling finale
mungflesh10 April 2014
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.
Decent found footage horror film, many similarities to other existing horrors.
s0hc4ht043 July 2014
Being a horror movie buff I had to jump on this the second I found out about it. While watching it I found many similarities to previous horror movies that I've seen: (1)Noroi (2)Session 9 and (3)The Descent (all three being some of my most favorite horror flicks of all time), but this movie 'sort of' fails to deliver a decisive punch. I say 'sort of' because it was quite entertaining and creepy at points, but the ending slightly failed to deliver. It wasn't a bad or good ending, in my opinion, but at the same time it was also kind of comical. I feel like there should have been five or so additional minutes at the end; not necessarily to "finish the ending" or "wrap up the story in a nice little package," but to just give it a chance to develop the creepiness. All-in-all, it was a good horror movie, maybe my expectations were a bit high is all.
Slow burner that delivers magnificently.
j-cronje7 December 2014
Before I write this, I have to confess that I love found footage films. There are excellent ones (The original PA, Cloverfield, REC), good ones (Troll Hunter/V.H.S.) and some seriously flawed (Willow Creek anyone?). But the way this seemingly slow paced film gets my mark for being between excellent and good is the characters. While things go quietly bump in the night, we learn about the characters themselves. Whilst every character has their agenda/bonus for completing the investigation, the most flawed character stands out as the one that wants to know the truth, and this film delivers in spades. There are just a few of these films that gives me chills when absolutely nothing is happening on screen, but the tension is rapidly building up, this happens to be one of them.
My only question that would give this an eight. If it is found footage? How was it found?
My only question that would give this an eight. If it is found footage? How was it found?
Paranormal Activity in a church.
victoryismineblast16 April 2014
Three men investigate paranormal goings on in an old small British church. The priest of the church is a rather strange man whose actions seem to defy logic.
The two investigators from the Catholic Church are very sceptical of the goings on and set out with the technician to debunk these claims of supernatural events. What these events actually are is kind of fuzzy as we see videos that show fleeting images of crosses and candles moving on a table.
This movie suffers from a popular found footage trend of nothing much happening for the first two thirds of the film, but it picks up for the final act with a eerie ending that is pretty original. 6/10.
The two investigators from the Catholic Church are very sceptical of the goings on and set out with the technician to debunk these claims of supernatural events. What these events actually are is kind of fuzzy as we see videos that show fleeting images of crosses and candles moving on a table.
This movie suffers from a popular found footage trend of nothing much happening for the first two thirds of the film, but it picks up for the final act with a eerie ending that is pretty original. 6/10.
Pointless meandering twaddle with no payoff
johnatrott11 March 2017
So-called "found footage" movie making annoys me. It is disorientating, head ache inducing and, in my experience has absolutely NOTHING in its favour. It is completely repellent. The idiotic, too close framing and jittering do absolutely nothing to make a movie more convincing or "feel real". Everything about this ill-considered fad is awful and absolutely nothing is good. After only a couple of minutes, I was tempted to walk out and, having sat through this boring garbage to the bitter, pointless end, I really wished I had. Putting the jittery camera work completely to one side, the "story" was so weak and unconvincing as to be barely existent. I didn't give a flying one for any of the characters and the end was a total flop. There were no saving graces. I have seen a huge number of horror films and this was one of the most disappointing, mainly because hopes were raised too high by overly enthusiastic, self-indulgent scribes who are far too easily impressed by pretentious, vacuous, utterly pointless nonsense.
Surprisingly good
ola_norsk2 March 2020
Very disappointed
sid_in_da_hows26 May 2018
After reading a lot of the reviews for this film I had such high hopes for a scary film with an interesting plot... i'm Afraid all the people who left reviews must have been watching a different film! The only positive I can give is that the Scottish mans acting was great and he was very believable... the plot however was lame and went nowhere... there was not a single frightening moment apart from when one of the guys jumps up from behind a pew and makes you jump... the end left more questions than there were answers and overall it was just pretty terrible. Very disappointed.
Slow starter, but a surprisingly good ending
RatedDG12 May 2015
I found it pretty hard to rate this movie. It starts off as a pretty standard haunting horror type movie, although perhaps a little too slow for my liking. Once you get past the awful acting of Robin Hill (sorry bud) as Gray, the rest of them are not bad at all. But, without wanting to spoil it, I actually quite liked the ending. It definitely wasn't the ending I was expecting. And the endings are usually what suck the most about horror movies. I'd actually be quite interested to see if Elliot Goldner directs any other horror movies in the hope that he improves the starter and main course of his movie but with the continued spot on desert!
Not Particularly Interesting...
dunxy7 April 2014
I normally place a fair bit of faith in the IMDb rating, pretty safe bet the film will be decent (as long as the subject matter/genre interests you)if it ranks above 5, hell I've even watched stuff ranking sub 4 that, because of the subject matter I have enjoyed.This is NOT one of those movies.
Maybe I'm the odd person out, but this film is mediocre at best.Generic run of the mill random stuff moving falling of walls and/or making sounds rubbish.Oh, don't forget the almost required for this type of film the whole "found" footage scenario.
Please, enough of these movies already! It may have made the makers of that god awful Blair Witch rubbish rich, but enough is enough.
If you like this found footage rubbish combined with shaky cam , generic scares and a very un-inspiring story that has little substance by all means give this a go, otherwise don't waste your time.
I gave it a 3, but even that is generous.Ignore the high rating on here, its obviously shilled up by the makers/crew.I have seen many films (I watch over 1000 per year, this will be in the bottom 10 FOR SURE) rating well below this that are 100 times better.
Maybe I'm the odd person out, but this film is mediocre at best.Generic run of the mill random stuff moving falling of walls and/or making sounds rubbish.Oh, don't forget the almost required for this type of film the whole "found" footage scenario.
Please, enough of these movies already! It may have made the makers of that god awful Blair Witch rubbish rich, but enough is enough.
If you like this found footage rubbish combined with shaky cam , generic scares and a very un-inspiring story that has little substance by all means give this a go, otherwise don't waste your time.
I gave it a 3, but even that is generous.Ignore the high rating on here, its obviously shilled up by the makers/crew.I have seen many films (I watch over 1000 per year, this will be in the bottom 10 FOR SURE) rating well below this that are 100 times better.
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