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The pretty recent movie production team, entitled “After dark horrorfest” have dished out many sub-par horror rip-offs, some in which actually have a somewhat likable value, rarely. I’ve come across a ton, and have now heard of all 40 of them. This all started back in 2006, and has become very successful since. Horror buffs, not necessarily even intellectual ones, are very impressed and mesmerized by this current run of horror, which is clearly the majority in which drives this new trend. I saw “Borderland” not too long ago, and found it to be pretty disappointing. “Frontier (s)” is not a whole lot better.
Deriving from nearly half of the current day horror flicks, Frontier (s) latches on to the clichéd premise, in a group of friends becoming entangled in an innocent looking, “too good to be true” situation, which ultimately results in mayhem and horrific events for all involved. If you’ve seen “The Hills Have Eyes”, “Hostel”, or “Borderland”, then you have most likely seen this film, numerous times in fact, as nearly one-hundred percent of the material shown is directly copied from them, albeit in a different style, and not executed in the least bit originally.
The story follows a group of good friends stuck in riot torn Paris, and their journey across the land attempting to escape the mayhem. All the while, the law is in search of them, as they are all under suspicion of sabotaging cars, breaking windows, etc, and etc. After a short while, two of them arrive at a hostel ran by a crazy German family disguised as kind, everyday people. The two are then introduced to a couple of prostitutes, and progress in doing the dirty. Shortly there after, the other friends arrive, only to be blockaded by the entire psychotic family. Sound familiar? That’s because it is. I don’t mind so much that it was by-the-books, as much as I mind the fact that the people behind the camera didn’t really put forth any effort into making it even slightly different.
I will admit, the first half had me enthralled, and was structured in the way that would interest most viewers. The freshness wasn’t exactly too strong, but the whole, very intense first twenty minutes or so bring this film a notch above being COMPLETELY forgettable. You get a good sense of the characters, as they are actually developed pretty well. I was interested in them a lot more than a lot of other characters from prior films. I did enjoy the fact that the development, conversations, interactions of all characters were put above the mindless violence, at least for the most part. Having said that, I was expecting a lot more from Frontiers, as it showed a lot of promise when I looked into what it was all about, the ratings, reviews, etc. Sadly, I was expecting something rather unique. Maybe something a little different. That was my mistake, and no one else is to blame. The whole idea is very intriguing to begin with, and actually got me excited to see what was in store. Unfortunately, nothing new is implemented, and I’ve seen this flick tons of times before. Stay away, unless you’re interested in some entertaining torture kills. Which, I admit, were damn entertaining, albeit annoying.
5.5/10
