You Said It Wasn’t Real

The Borderlands (2013) Dir. Elliot Goldner

A priest, minister and tech specialist are sent by the Vatican to investigate a potential miracle at a rural English church. The more they discover, the more they become convinced this was no act of God. 

“We are not trying to convince the audience that they are not watching anything other than a film. Of course you suspend your disbelief and we as filmmakers try and make it feel as authentic and immediate as possible, but there’s no point trying to pretend that it’s actually real.” - Elliot Goldner

How do you feel about found footage films? They tend to split horror fans down the middle. Once an exciting and fresh formal constraint that reinvigorated the horror genre in the late nineties with films like the Blair Witch Project, there have now been plenty of poor imitators that have made the sub-genre feel predictable and tired. 

But as with any sub-genre, it’s all about execution. There’s nothing inherently bad about found footage. Ultimately, it’s just a formal constraint. They’re basically Dogme 95 films if the manifesto didn’t have that line about genre movies being forbidden.

Enter The Borderlands (or Final Prayer in the US). When friends ask me for a horror film I found scary that they might not have seen, I always suggest The Borderlands. Every time, that same friend will come back raving about it. It’s one of the most successfully creepy found footage - nay, horror - movies of the past decade and deserves to be much more well known than it is.

“There’s nature for you Deacon. Big stuff eating little stuff.” - Gray

I think one of the reasons it works so well is that the director/writer and producers were similarly reticent about the found footage format when approached to make the film by the studio. Apparently, they sat down and wrote down all the issues they had with the sub-genre, and then set about trying to find solutions. Principle among these was removing the perennial question: “why are they still filming?” The answer they establish within the first five minutes of the film is elegantly simple: How do you record proof of a miracle without video evidence? Head cams and fixed cameras in the principal locations have been installed by the team to document the investigation. No one needs to hold anything or press record.

With that out the way, the next major concern was finding actors good enough to act naturally and be able to improvise. What’s interesting here is that they picked Ben Wheatley’s editor and collaborator from Kill List and Down Terrace - Robin Hill - to play the techie, Gray. He’s not an actor. Weirdly, his rapport with Gordon Kennedy’s Deacon works and you buy into their unlikely friendship as the film progresses.

With the camera and acting taken care of, there’s very little that gets in the way of audience immersion. That’s where found footage can really sing. When all the right elements are in place, you can let yourself get carried away with the pretence of it all. Before long, the camera glitches and unexplained noises start getting to you. Stick this on in a dark room, turn your phones/tablets off, and let yourself get spooked.

“Have a cracking day mate. Good luck with Edward Woodward!” - Gray

What’s also great about the film is that what starts as an Exorcist adjacent exploration of Christianity, soon peels back the curtain to reveal a modern folk horror classic slithering behind it. To say too much more would spoil the fun of it, but needless to say, this is a film that understands and plays with the history the Christian Church has with “paganism” in the UK.

“It is crucial to stress right from the start that until the 20th century, people did not call themselves pagans to describe the religion they practised. The notion of paganism, as it is generally understood today, was created by the early Christian Church. It was a label that Christians applied to others, one of the antitheses that were central to the process of Christian self-definition. As such, throughout history it was generally used in a derogatory sense.” -  Owen Davies, Paganism: A Very Short Introduction

It’s hard to talk about The Borderlands without talking about the wild, disturbing and yet entirely appropriate ending, but I’m still nervous about spoiling things, so I’ll just say: go watch it!

Where can I watch it in the UK?

You can rent it for £1.99 or buy it for £5.99 on Rakuten.

Pairs well with

In terms of slightly overlooked, excellent found footage films, this would make a great double bill with Savageland (2015, dir. David Whelan, Simon Herbert, Phil Guidry, available to rent for £0.99 on Amazon). I only saw this for the first time fairly recently and I’m surprised it isn’t more well known. The premise is simple: a horrific event has happened in a small border town in Arizona - leaving only one survivor. He is arrested and charged with killing the rest of the town’s residents, but his camera roll tells a different story.

Savageland is largely a mockumentary, with the actual horrifying event told to us through blurry, effectively creepy, black and white still images. It’s essentially Horror La Jetée. But the story also uses its setting on the Arizona-Mexico border to highlight and critique border immigration fear-mongering that has only gotten worse since. 

Further Reading

• If you’re keen on found footage and want to deep dive into the origins of the divisive sub-genre, the Found Footage Phenomenon documentary is available on Shudder.
• Kermode Uncut on Crossing the Borderlands.
• Horrified Magazine on Revisiting The Borderlands.
• On the subject of horror documentaries and folk horror, I highly recommend Woodlands Dark, and Days Bewitched (also available to stream on Shudder).

Other Recommendations

• This is slightly last minute as it’s happening today at 3pm in Edinburgh, but Sett Studios are organising a folkloric procession through Leith. Flaw Foik involves performance art, exhibitions, live music, and a costumed parade.
• The always excellent merch company Super Yaki have a halloween collection on sale right now. Unfortunately they don’t ship to Europe so I’ve never been able to get myself any of their amazing looking Scream related tees but if you live in North America, treat yourself!