Forget Blair Witch, a del Toro-Recced Found Footage Hidden Gem is Now Free on Tubi

Summary

• Guillermo del Toro recently shared his new horror discovery.
• It's a film from 11 years ago.
• The movie is rightly considered one of the scariest, skillfully combining elements of different horror subgenres.

In the last 5-10 years, the found footage format has shifted more from feature-length horror films to short analog horror projects and alternate reality games on TikTok and Twitter. The analog horror emphasizes the nostalgic yet uncanny feeling conveyed by the technology of decades past.

The AR games, on the other hand, use modern smartphones to convey a POV atmosphere no worse than the student filmmakers of The Blair Witch Project could do with professional and amateur cameras.

And yet, no movie makes you feel for the characters like a found-footage movie. And when you add to the formula a skillful and clever approach to production and cinematography, as well as no less intriguing elements of supernatural and folk horror to the story, the result can be one of the scariest and most uncomfortable movies you've ever seen.

That's exactly what The Borderlands, released 11 years ago, turned out to be, and even the master of horror filmmaking, Guillermo del Toro, appreciated it.

One of the Creepiest Found Footage Horror Movies Ever Made

The Borderlands, or Final Prayer as it is known in the US, is a film directed and written by Elliot Goldner, for whom it is his only feature-length project to date. Premiering at London's FrightFest Film Festival in 2013 and released in the US in 2015, The Borderlands went relatively unnoticed, which is a huge oversight considering it is one of the most disturbing found footage films ever made.

Its atmosphere is built by cleverly slow-burning suspense, starting as a very grounded religious story about questioning one's faith, but then instead of a classic exorcism story full of jump scares, the viewer gets a folk horror in the manner of The Wicker Man, and then takes on a cosmic horror tone reminiscent of William Hope Hodgson and H. P. Lovecraft.

The plot follows three men, Brother Deacon (Gordon Kennedy), who is skeptical not only of the supernatural but also of the idea of divine miracles, tech expert Gray Parker (Robin Hill) and Father Mark Amidon (Aidan McArdle), who are sent by the Vatican to the Devon countryside to investigate a local church where miracles have allegedly begun to occur. But what at first appears to be an ordinary hoax quickly takes a dark turn, leading to pagan rituals and something more primordial and chthonic.

The horror of the situation and its realism is brilliantly conveyed by the cinematography: the camera is not just in the hands of one person, it is actively passed from character to character, and in moments of danger they do not always have time to film what is happening, which incredibly adds an eerie tension to the story.

The Film Was Praised by Guillermo Del Toro

Not long ago, none other than Guillermo Del Toro took to his X (formerly known as Twitter) account to share his thoughts on The Borderlands.

The famous filmmaker not only called the movie 'an unknown gem,' but also compared its narrative to the mastery of classic gothic horror writers like M. R. James, Algernon Blackwood, and Arthur Machen. In addition, del Toro cited the aforementioned William Hope Hodgson as an example: one of the subscribers suggested that the plot referred to his novel The House on the Borderland, while the filmmaker believed that the film was more reminiscent of the short story The Whistling Room.

The Borderlands is now available for free ad-supported streaming on Tubi. It is also available for rent or purchase on most major platforms, including Amazon, Apple TV, Google Play, YouTube, Microsoft and Fandango at Home.

Source: X.