THE PARANORMAL PASTOR: The Borderlands/Final Prayer (2013)

We’re at number 5 on JD’s deep dive into his top 10 paranormal investigation movies, and this one gets medieval on the investigators.

The first outright religious horror on the list, The Borderlands gets almost everything right…almost.

It’s really a toss-up as to whether The Innkeepers should or shouldn’t be ranked ahead of The Borderlands. They could easily switch places because they are both similar with how accurate they present things…and, also, where they fail. I picked The Borderlands over The Innkeepers simply because the found footage style gives it a more realistic feel.

I’m excited because this is our first outright religious horror film on the list…and I’m here for it! The Borderlands is another found footage film that gets almost everything right. The story focuses on a team of investigators from The Vatican They go to a remote church to basically disprove the strange phenomena being reported. What they discover is unsettling.

The investigator realism in this film is near perfect. You’ve got EVPs, environmental audio distortions, infrasound, and disembodied voices embedded in background noise. To do this the movie relies heavily on the different mic placements, interference, and unintelligible audio that requires much review to sort it out. The way the audio anomalies are portrayed in the film is one of the most accurate I have ever seen.

Since we have the Catholic Church involved, this gives us another layer to dissect for accuracy. What I mean by that is looking at how the Church reacts to the phenomena. When we do, we see conflicting theology, a reluctance to label something demonic, and institutional pressure to explain away what is happening…all accurate. Add to this the angle of conservative, procedural bureaucracy, and you’ve got some heavy doses of realism with how these things work.

Another piece that gives this movie a heavy helping of accuracy is the sceptic vs believer dichotomy. There is internal tension among the team, and this mirrors many real-life groups. For example, you’ve got one member who is grounded in data only. Another member is open to spiritual meaning in what’s happening, while yet another seems to be heavy on reacting more emotionally. But no one, and I repeat, no one in this film tries to act like a psychic superhero. This earns points for me.

Alas, now we get into the category where so many other films fail: the phenomena escalation pattern. How does The Borderlands hold up?

The film nails the sequence. We’ve got things starting out with some environmental discomfort followed by audio anomalies. This moves on to sleep disturbances and cognitive stress. Finally, we see phenomena being narrowed down to specific locations. This is textbook, and the movie gets a slow handclap from me for this.

Another beautifully realistic angle of this film is the misinterpretation of evidence. This happens at times and is why it takes the team bouncing things off one another, even getting outsiders involved. The movie plays off this. We repeatedly see things being attributed to demonic activity. They also misread the nature of the location and trust in the wrong framework they are using to see the phenomena through. This mirrors real world examples where investigators fail (especially ones with less experience) because they misclassify cases.

With all the things this movie gets right, you must know something is coming since it’s ranked number 5. As you probably guessed, it loses its realistic grasp at the end. I mean that literally. It’s not like The Medium or Hell House where the latter part of the film descends into movie land. It’s more restrained than they are, but the last few minutes fail the test.

The film turns a theoretical anomaly into a literal one, refusing to leave things ambiguous at the end, which would be way more realistic. If the film ended with the audio going dead, incomplete footage, or conflicting interpretations, it probably would have earned the one or two spot on the list. Overall, this movie is amazingly accurate and creepy. If you haven’t yet, you need to see it!

Final rating 4.1/5

Known by his fans as “The Paranormal Pastor,” JD Hill brings a unique and original touch to the dark fiction genre. His twenty plus years in ministry have afforded him the opportunity to encounter people from all walks of life and in a myriad of situations. These experiences have leaked into his stories in numerous ways. He is from Baton Rouge, Louisiana and has four children.

PLEASE NOTE: The views and opinions of the staff of Memento Mori Ink do not necessarily represent those of Memento Mori Ink or Crystal Lake Publishing. Thank you for understanding.