ridiculous rating

Please don't spend money on this.

I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

Wow! What a bizarre film! Unfortunately the few funny moments there were were quite overshadowed by it's completely weird and random vibe throughout.

Whilst being a fan of the first two Rec films and enjoying some of the Paranormal Activity flicks,I'm well aware that the "Found Footage" Horror sub-genre is seen in the mainstream as being at the bottom of the ladder. Taking a look at the BBC listings recently,I was happily surprised to find a Found Footage flick being given a good time slot!,which led to me setting the recorder and crossing the border.The plot:Getting reports of a "miracle" taking place in a church,The Vatican send Deacon and Gray in to find out if a miracle has taken place,and are ordered to film their investigation. Locating the church in a country town,Gray and Deacon find the locals less than keen to talk about the past of the town. Whilst initially believing that it was all a hoax,Gray and Deacon soon nail a dark secret in the church on the cross.View on the film:Openly having the lads joke about The Wicker Man to the locals for his debut feature,the screenplay by writer/director Elliot Goldner features a refreshing playfulness,as Deacon and Gray's investigations at the church are inter-cut with them exchanging banter over the alleged miracle in the country pub. While taking some leaps with the horror, (no one bothers to check what is being recorded at the church) Goldner makes these flaws easy to overlook,thanks to building a real relationship between Gray and Deacon,who go from arguing about every minor thing the other one does,to praying that they can help each other survive.Shot on location,director Elliot Goldner & cinematographer Eben Bolter hold back on the shaky cam of Found Footage to use the format for a claustrophobic atmosphere,where the viewer sees every murmur from the church run down Gray's spine. Shaking a Gothic Horror shadow over the lands,Goldner wonderfully records the Found Footage with expert sound effects giving the eerie impression of something crawling under the border.

I didn't hate this film, but it disappointed me in scene after scene. The characters are pretty dull, the story is weak and progresses too slowly, the scares are too few and too cheap (largely jump scares and false flags), and the ending is stupid. People in found footage films tend to do silly things, and this can have an alienating effect on the audience. This film is a really good example of that trend. In the climax of the film, the characters end up doing unbelievably dumb things, which, of course, gets them killed. Also, in the true found footage manner, nothing is ever explained. It's very convenient for the screen writer, is it not, to be able to throw all kinds of silly and confusing things at the audience, and never have to explain them, because in the final scene the characters all end up dead, and there is no one left to explain anything. Ultimately the thrill of found footage is the ride itself, and this ride picks up pace only at the end, which is a huge detriment. Had the plot been intelligent and cleverly developed, this wouldn't have been the problem. Unfortunately, this was not the case.

--major, MMMAJOR spoiler alert-- . . i seriously do not understand how movies of this sort achieve 5+ rating, i'm not venting right now, i wish i could ask some of the people that rated it as such, 'cause i truly fail to understand this. well done, once again you made me waste time and money on this horrendous, childish nonsense.the characters are flat and meaningless, deacon and michael especially who are just both awful, unlikeable and poorly acted cardboard cutouts of people, why would you care about anything that happens to these two is beyond me. gray likewise gives the impression he just popped into existence: no story, bland meaningless character with a single, recurring 1-sided phone call that links his character to anything happening beyond the perimeter of these "borderlands", and to whom it's given the sad task to inject an attempt at pitiful humour into the story, and what story? what is it that happens in this movie, exactly? a single, exceedingly (no. not enough. Exceedingly. nope. EXCEEEEEDINGLY, better... i so hope never to see this man in movies again. EVER. AGAIN.) poorly acted and equally 2-dimensional character who's thankfully been on screen all of 3 minutes total commits suicide, and a single, actual gem of brilliance gives me hope (yet dashed) for future development when gray goes out for a cigarette break and amazingly fails to see his own headstone. mhhh... sheep on fire? OK... that was a moment... but why? who were those guys? what motivated them? why do they wear hoods? why do they harass the protagonists? why does anything happen here AT ALL? well, viewers, that's why it's a horror/"MYS-TE-RY" movie, get it?no.once again, Once a-freakking-gain, another movie that, having just had a scene with a sliver of genius that makes you hope for something better to come, then devolves into a senseless, pointless underground chase for a character who just refuses to stop or at least reply, and who's always just out of reach (see: "as above, so below", the twin to this reeking pile of dog doo, and a dozen of the other 2p movies i've watched in the last 6 months) with nobody ever questioning why would they do that, or where are we going here, 'cause of course it's a friggin labirynth... leading to what i believe is the scene for which the entire movie was greenlit, the "final minute".i would bet my "final dollar" they made the entire mess of a movie on the back of that last minute, they even changed the title, right? from "borderlands" (which borderlands, what are they on about for the love of Bob) to "final prayer"? the directing writer obviously couldn't find a sane a-leads-to-b-leads-to-something-plausible reason for why "our" characters all of a sudden find themselves inside Satan's rectum (...AH YES... (note 1)), so have them blindly follow someone and just find themselves there, OK so we manouvered ourselves so that there's no-one left to "lampshade" the stupidity of it for the viewers, let's just throw it out there, it'll work, they're horror watchers, so morons after all.well, yes, if you managed to give a 5+ to this movie, yes, sorry, but yes, you are.Neil, London, UK. (note 1) and now that you've read that you're going to rent the movie aren't you? aren't you? i'm warning you, don't, it's not going to be even half as much fun as this post was.

I really liked this movie. The low rating does it a disservice but I can understand it, being a movie that is relatively subtle and builds gradually without relying on old school jumps, cranky action sequences or gore at all. It gave me the creeps, and I'm not one to scare easily. I am a big horror fan and have been watching horror since I was far too young to be doing so but generally find the current state of horror to be fairly insipid and uninspiring, unimaginative and not scary, particularly the multiplex horror of recent times. I actually went into this one with fairly high expectations on the back of a recommendation by celebrated UK film critic Mark Kermode who, despite what else you might think of him, really does know his horror, inside out, and also generally seems to share the opinion that a lot of newer horror cinema is lacking in ideas, so when he does recommend a new horror movie I tend to take note. I'm glad I did. It's hard to put my finger on any one specific thing which made this film experience as effective as it was but I'm sure the fantastic rumbling, building, sinister but cleverly sparse soundtrack had something to do with it. The acting was good and the confusion and panic which slowly creeps in was well played out, the script was great, giving equal space for humour as well as terror which never felt forced but on the contrary balances the tone of the film out nicely. Probably most importantly the characters are brilliantly written which is becoming something of a rarity in modern horror cinema it seems. The relationship between the two main characters was a joy to watch develop and was most definitely a major contributing factor in how effecting I found the ending when it finally rears its ugly head. You care about these two. You've warmed to them, you like them, and to see them in such a desperate state of peril gets you right in the gut. It's been a long time since I felt such a sense of dread and discomfort throughout the last act of a film and a long time since the last few moments of a film have stuck in my mind in such a way and left me reeling like it did once the credits hit (with the exception of Kill List, another fantastic recent British horror film that is comparable to this in many ways, sharing the building sense of dread that creeps over you throughout). This is a decent effort by a talented film-maker which manages to do something different with the 'found footage' format and I very much look forward to seeing what they do next.