WOW!!!!!

Fucking WOW!!!!!!

Bravo, bravo!!!!

What a kickass little flick.  It's a hybrid horror/thriller/drama/Found Footage/Docu/Mocumentary that will have your heart racing and never let up over the hour and half runtime.

This is a tough film to sit through, as it's extremely brutal, violent, pulls no punches, and deals with "ugly" and difficult subject matter.  This is not for everyone and I can easily see where certain individuals will be very upset at the depiction of numerous things and people.

Obviously, I don't want to spoil anything here, so I'm doing my best not to provide details.

I'm seriously just blown away how effective and riveting this is.  Hats off to writer/director Chris Peckover. This is not an easy film to make in any way.  In fact, I really can't even wrap my brain around what the script looks like, but it makes me think that many FF/mockumentary films have a basic premise and story, which is turned directly into a shooting script.  I don't know, but it's impressive.

We've got an estimated budget of $1.4 Million on display here and the money went a long way, as the film looks good, and the FX are awesome.  The acting is shockingly convincing, and again, this is not easy material to act in.

There are so many scenes in which my eyes were open wide and my breath was coming in bunches.  The use of night vision filming works great and isn't over utilized.  The action/fight scenes all look so good and are handled just about perfectly.

Damn, I'm just so impressed.  I don't want to say anythign else.

WATCH this film and give it a rating it deserves.  I gave it 4 stars, but I was close to going balls out and giving a rare 5 star rating.

I saw the smug poster a while back and balked...
But since it's you, I'll give it a whirl.

Besides, I'll either see a good movie...
Or harass you because it stinks.
So it's a win-win!

Regards,
E.D.

Quoted from Grandma Bear Believe it or not Jeff, but I actually watch most films you recommend.

Good, you angry bear, you.  You should also post your feelings on them afterward.

I'm reading some reviews on this now and it seems to be very polarizing, which to me, means it accomplished what it set out to do, and did it in a balls out way that many can't handle.

I think it's truly an excellent film and I commend IFC for making/funding/whatever the fuck they do to get movies like this out there.

Riddled with cheeseball shenanigans, a cast of complete poon darts whom I gave no shit about, a line up of villains who i'd kick the shit out of myself...

I loath IFC films for various reasons... The Human Centipede 1 and 2 come to mind -- now there is this one.  

I kept waiting for the shock and awe horror but it never came.  We had every cliche in the book here.  I dunno, Jeff... This one, the acting, everything, just didn't speak to me.

To make matters worse, I swear that non acting little shit spoon from the equally lame Hellraiser revelation played one of the "tough" guys.  

This movie  has been made many times... "the clinic" is one variant of it.  It sucked too.  

What kills me most, well one thing, was why couldn't these "bad guys" just take the cam's and film themselves?  It was lame.  They didn't need these people alive.  They could've documented this themselves... All of it.   They could preform riskey operations, but couldn't operate camera's...

We have the typical "we're saved" lead off, only to have the guy be "in" on it...

The one girl, she was lousy... Lousy, lousy, lousy.  I'm so sick of the "tough", don't under estimate me chick too... I've already been instilled to know that women, all of them, will make it in these movies.  

I also hate how this operation these idiots had going on was a smooth one until these pesky grad students came along.  But isn't that always the way?

If the writer/director wanted us to like the mains... They failed.  Big time.   The only thing I was left with in the end was one question... Where did Brandon go?  I was dead sure they were gonna make him in on it.  Might as well should've.

Chop, watch Chop.  That's entertainment.  It makes a mockery out of horror in decent fashion.

I watched the first half of this recently, along with 2 other FF films: Trollhunter, and The Last Exorcism.

I don't have a deep reservoir of film knowledge, especially with low budget genre productions. I wanted to learn more about FF technique, and this film came recommended. From that perspective, it didn't disappoint. It uses a mixed FF format, and it was informative for a writer to see how they established that right from the opening shots.

As far as enjoying the movie itself, this just isn't my kind of thing. I only watched half, so I can't judge it fairly. But it's clearly torture porn, though masquerading as some kind of shallow political statement.

Balt is right that there is no character development, though I suspect this is probably the case with most FF. The Last Exorcism had a clear protagonist journey, however, though this is probably not the norm for the genre.

Undocumented did do a reasonably effective job building tension with the journey over the border into the US, capturing a sense of what that terrifying experience might be like.

I did not have a problem buying into that the bad guys would let the documentary crew film. It's no more implausible than any other FF scenario. Why learn how to operate professional video and sound equipment when you can have the crew do it? Also, I've done a lot of research into the Nazi concentration camps, and often guard behavior devolves into sadism. Certainly for those so inclined, there would be sadistic pleasure in making people film something that is horrifying for them to watch. The bad guys would have known the political beliefs of the crew, and this would have fueled their sadism even more.

So I can respect the work, knowing that this is low budget and targets a very specific audience. It's just not for me.

Well, Balt, we all have different opinions and it always surprises me what moves one and doesn't move another.

I completely disagree with most of what you said here, but in turn, you completely disagreed with my original post, so that obviously makes complete sense.

I'm really surprised you say the acting was bad, as in my mind, it was great.  The expressions on the Protags faces showed complete horror, disgust, and fear.  All while trying to film various things, as opposed to running from some fake creature/whatever in most such movies.  I totally believed what I was watching and bought in immediately.

I also totally cared for all the Protags.  IMO, it was well developed very early that these were good peeps, for the most part.  Even cool peeps.  The scene with the worker who lost his leg was very moving for me, and again, the looks from the filmers faces as the scene was being shot showed who they were.  The little girl and her mother were well done, and for me, totally believable.

You lathe IFC?  Damn, I applaud IFC.  They have balls and they put together good "little" films.

As for why didn't the Antags just film this themselves?  Well, IMO, they didn't want to kill the Protags and weren't going to if they did what they were told and "cooperated".  They didn't have access to putting together a film like this and decided to use the Protags since they stumbled upon what they were doing. They weren't just cold blooded killers/psychos, they were backward thinking racists, who thought they were freedom fighters - they actually believed what they were doing was "right".

Anyways...it's obvious that this is gong to be a polarizing film, but I really am surprised someone like you didn't appreciate it.  I really am.  Oh well, just goes to show that you never know.

I watched this a few days ago and thought it was pretty well done. The pacing starts to lag in the middle, but it takes off again once the carnage begins.

Not gonna get into a major review here, but the one thing I didn't like about it is that i felt it was politically motivated in the midst of the recent illegal alien laws that have been tightened. In that sense, I think it fails because it doesn't tell a true story.

Sure, you see what these people go through and sacrifice to get into this country, but paint the good ol' hillbillies as complete assholes. For me that was a cliche.

These guys certainly didn't seem intelligent enough to set up this type of operation. Everyone that worked for the bad guy in the bee mask was an idiot.

But, I can't say I didn't enjoy parts of it because I did.

James

I was leery of the smug movie poster.
And for the most part, it was just cause.

The production spends the 1.4 million pretty well.
Once in a while the scenes get interesting.
But the moral posturing/torture porn vibe gets old fast.
And then it tries to get all insane in the membrane for an act three kicker.
Playing sadistic games that undermines any credibility it may have built up.

And the biggest middle finger of all was saved for the audience...
The villain is a played by a Swedish citizen!

I only wish we got to see Peter Stormare's mug.
I'll watch the guy in just about anything since he showed up in Fargo.

E.D.