"The Borderlands", also known as "Final Prayer", has one of the most surprising and horrifying endings I've ever seen in a horror movie.
Even though it has been spoiled to me by a goddamn list on a site, the final scene is still shocking.

And this was only possible because the film manages to build well a tense and believable atmosphere and maintain it until the final moment.
The beginning is slow, but in the second act we have the first moment of impact involving an act of pure cruelty. Really fucked up stuff.

I'm not a fan of "found footage", but I recognize when a movie is good regardless of the style choices. In this case, as in "Afflicted"…

When it comes to found footage horror movies I have a sort of love (REC.2007) and hate (THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT) relationship with them and FINAL PRAYER... well it's a complicated relationship.

Final Prayer aka The Borderlands doesn't offer anything original as it follows the same routine most found footage films does but having said that it isn't that dumb of a movie there was a proper train of thought behind it and it did manage to do certain things properly rather than just pulling out a jump scares fest filled with shitty shaky cam.

The plot makes sense as the characters aren't forcing themselves in the unknown territory just to make a few bucks and are there on a…

It's always satisfying when a new found footage film is a critical success considering all the shite thrown at the sub-genre (it really is no worse than, I dunno, let's say the 'action' genre), but it's still finding its feet I guess. These things take time to bed in sometimes.

So THE BORDERLANDS isn't going to change too many people's minds but it is going to satisfy those of us already fans of the format. While not being a particularly revolutionary attempt, what it lacks in originality it earns back points in chills, characters, a good set-up and a hugely tense finale.

What I love about this type of film, when done well (too many to list), is the immediacy…

Daily Horror Scavenger Hunt

6. A found footage film

Thanks to Biscoito's review, I’ve been wanting to check this out for a while and I gotta agree that this is probably one of the best found footage films I’ve seen. I always say I don’t care for the whole sub-genre, but the last few that I’ve seen I’ve had a really good time with so maybe I’m just a liar.
This was creepy, interesting, and had a face slap of an ending that I did not see coming. I thought I was going to be annoyed with the characters at first, but then they had a good dynamic and they grew on me. I also liked that they all wore headcams because it…

It's a well worn setup by now, religious-themed found footage showcasing the eternal battle between good and evil, Catholicism and paganism, but The Borderlands manages to rise above the potential hokeyness of its plot through the resourcefulness of its execution; the disquieting setting and judicious use of sound design to suggest rather than show. The kind of crappy blink-and-you'll-(hopefully)-miss-it CGI that is prevalent in supernatural found footage films is nowhere to be found here and that's a good thing; possibly a case of budgetary constraints working in its favour. As with all found footage, the implicit questions of how and why hang over proceedings. In this case, it's not so much 'why did they keep filming?' as 'how the hell…