Rating:8/10
Borderland isn't really the movie you think it is going to be.  This movie is advertised like it was the second coming of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.  It has been compared by many people to The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.  It is being thrown into the genre of what is nowadays refered to as torture horror.  Movies such as Hostel, Turistas and the Saw movies(not the first one though, I consider that more of a mystery).  In the first ten minutes it does come across that way.  And considering how gritty the movie looks and feels, that is what you think you are going to get.  But in that first torture scene, it is dark and kind of hard to see, but you do see enough to know what is going on and how that person is being tortured.  But after that, the movie changes.  The movie turns more into a mystery and then changes into more of an tensely filled action packed movie.  Even though there were a couple of scenes that had a little gore, I would not call this movie a horror or torture movie.  This is more of an action packed movie.  One of the chase scenes on foot, when the cultists are chasing Jake Muxworthy through the hotel, I found myself really getting into the scene.  Towards the end when our heroes are raiding the camp of the cultists to save their friend, that is also more of an action sequence.  The actors involved were excellent.  I really got into the character that Jake Muxworthy portrayed.  The other actors were pretty good with their characters as well.  It was different to see Sean Astin as one of the cultists.  And did he look mean.  One of the flaws that this movie had was that these characters were supposed to be kids graduating from high school.  The only one who looked like he was a teenager was Rider Strong.  He also provided an excellent performance.  This movie was based on the true events of the Satan's Ranch run by Adolfo de Jesus Constanzo.  I'm not sure how faithful how this story is compared to what happened, but this was a very realistic film.  It wasn't silly or over the top.  It looked as if the source material was respected to a point.  But I wouldn't call this movie a horror movie.  Who knows, maybe I'm so jaded by horror movies, maybe I don't know anymore, but this was more of an action movie than horror.  This was a pretty good movie that I think if people see this with the right frame of mind, they will enjoy it.