Available at Amazon.com
Director
Ulli Lommel
Cast
Elissa Dowling… Melanie
Christian Behm… Hubert Humphrey III
Patrick Faucette… Jean-Lous Racine
Release Date: August 21, 2007
Running Time: 81 Minutes
The Movie
There are an awful lot of serial killers making the movie rounds these days. Borderline Cult‘s addition to the already crowded genre has a trio of killers racking up an impressively large body count. Unfortunately while killing hundreds of people does qualify for ‘notorious killer’ status, it’s not enough to qualify for ‘good movie.’
Borderline Cult is seriously lacking in the plot department. Three disturbed individuals meet and somehow decide that it would be a good idea to team up and become famous serial killers. Melanie lures the young women in, Hubert Humphrey III tortures and murders them and Jean-Lous Racine buries the body (so in a sense Hubert Humphrey III is the only actual serial killer).
The movie alternates between the murder scenes and filling us in on the lives of the murderous trio. After a killing no more notable than the others, the three decide they’ve killed enough people and so they stop. Thanks to the complete absence of any opposition (either from police or just from one of the intended victims) there’s no real climax to the movie; it just kind of ends.
The murder scenes really bog down the movie. None of the victims are given more than token characterization and no real chance of escape so it is difficult to really care about them. As the movie is really about the killers, the victims don’t need a lot of characterization, but there are just too many scenes where a victim is introduced and killed off.
Between all the killing, the movie focuses on the three killers and this is where the movie works best. While there are some gaps in the backstory that really should have been explored (like how exactly Melanie, HH III and Jean-Lous found out they would make such a great team), the backstory we do get is pretty good. There’s a series of monologues where each of the killers talks to a video camera and relays a bit of information about his or her past that work really well. Other stuff (like Melanie’s visits to a fortune teller) doesn’t work quite so well, but on a whole the parts of the movie that don’t directly involve killing someone are quite watchable.
For a low-budget horror movie, the acting is also quite good. Low-budget horror movies are usually filled with cringe-inducingly bad acting, but Borderline Cult features a surprisingly competent group of actors. From the commentary, and poking around on IMDB, it seems that the director, Ulli Lommel, has a group of actors that show up again and again in his films. That approach apparently is a sound one as the acting, while not Academy-Award winning, is much better than you would expect from the genre.
On the whole, Borderline Cult is something of a mixed bag. The profile of the serial killers is pretty fascinating, but the actual killings tend to just get in the way. The film is also in desperate need of an actual climax.
The Video and the Audio
The video is presented in 1.78:1 and the audio is in Dolby Digital 2.0. Both are adequate, but nothing more.
The Extras
Audio Commentary – Director Ulli Lommel, producer Nola Roeper, and actor/editor Christian Behm provide a commentary track which has little to do with the actual movie. The commentary was recorded a couple days after the Virginia Tech shootings so they discuss that for a while (and whether or not violence is glorified in Borderline Cult and other, more mainstream, films). The commentary also covers everything from politics to ideas for new movies to telling a series of random jokes. It’s kind of like listening to a group of friends hanging out; the movie sometimes spurs discussion, but that discussion can go pretty much anywhere.
Bonus Footage – An extended version of one of the torture/murder scenes (that was cut to avoid an NC-17 rating), additional location footage of Juarez and a somewhat different take on another one of the kills. In total, the footage runs about five minutes.
Stills Gallery – A rather tiny gallery of stills from the movie.
Trailers – There are trailers for The Condemned, Chicacgo Masscare: Richard Spreck, Brutal, Mummy Maniac, Haunted Boat, and fearnet.com. There’s also a trailer for Borderline Cult which does a pretty good job of selling the film.
The Inside Pulse
Borderline Cult represents an intriguing idea for a serial killer movie. The movie could have been really good if there had been less time spent on the kills and more focus on the trio behind the killings. Alternatively, some sort of opposing force (in the form of a police officer, PI, or greiving relative) also would have helped the movie (not to mention guaranteed a more exciting climax). As it is, there’s a lot of potential, and some neat momemnts, but the movie just doesn’t work. There are some nice extras here though so if you do pick up the DVD, it’s not a total loss.
