The Borderlands/ or as it is otherwise known as The Final Pray is a British found footage horror movie directed by Elliot Goldner. The plot sees a team of Vatican Investigators descend upon a small English town after a local priest claims to have witness a miracle, or at least something unexplainable. The team soon start to notice odd things going on and suspicions grow.
I was on the verge of not watching found footage films anymore, films like Found Footage 3D and the second Blair Witch film had led me to lose faith in the genre with film after film feeling like samey, boring, repetitive trash. However, after a few people on Twitter recommended this film to me I decided to have one last hurrah and give it a go and I am pleased to tell you I enjoyed it.
For a start it is nice to see a found footage horror film set in the UK, in a quaint little village no less, rather than some endlessly expansive wood somewhere Stateside. Another thing I appreciate about this film is that it does not drag things out. We all know how it goes, first you get some bangs, then maybe something falls off the wall, then they put up cameras, then they hear something etc; it is at this point formulaic and obvious. However, before the first 20 minutes are over in this film a group of the local youth have set a sheep on fire to scare the priests and their associates, there is no boring, drawn out built; this film gets right to it.
Another thing I will applaud this film for is you’re never quite sure what the monster is. Even in the final moments of the film you are none the wiser as to what is killing the men. A Pagan God seems like the most logical suspect, but nothing is ever confirmed, and the ending is deliberately ambiguous.
The one thing I will bring the film up on, is the use of camera effects such as cutting out and distortion. Whenever something paranormal happens the camera picture starts to break up, obviously so they didn’t have to find a practical way to show what was happening, and normally I wouldn’t mind this, but here it felt a little overused.
Overall, a marvellous found footage film that might have reignited my interest in the genre.
Pros.
It is nice seeing it set in the UK for a change.
The ending and the ambiguity.
It gets right into it.
The scares.
Cons.
The camera trickery is overused.
4.5/5
Reviewed by Luke
Another Millennial Reviewer 