User Reviews

I did not enjoy this movie. I don't think this is a movie made to be enjoyed. What did make me happy was knowing just how uncomfortable a "patriotic" American would be to hear the same garbage he or she states come from the mouth of an all-too possible xenophobic lunatic spouting the same rhetoric and self-interest as any average American might do. It's a likely premise that makes you quite uncomfortable. I would really love to watch an anti-immigration supporter watch this film and not stir in their seat. This is because this is quite simply a brutal scenario that could (or maybe already has) occurred. The movie tries to put into perspective the plight of illegal immigrants.

It's a difficult thing to do, I guess, but when you're subjected to a Mexican farmer's wife being torn apart and his little girl shredded on barbed wire for nothing more than the fact that they are "illegal parasites" who are poor and desperate, it makes you wonder how you can think such terrible things about people. What would I do to save my family if I lived in a country overrun by cartels and warlords? A country where I couldn't make enough money to feed my family no matter how hard or long I worked? What would you do? I think we all already know the answer. The answer is you'd run to the first place you could find that would be safer for you and your family. You'd work any miserable, rubbish job just to never return to that place and to watch your child grow up safe and happy. As much as it may be a "torture porn" movie (which I dislike above all other types of horror film as my other reviews will show) it still made me think in the end. I think that's what this movie is trying to do. I commend it for that.

This is a movie which could happen. Almost to the point, it could be a true story. Whether it is or not, I am not sure. It starts out as a group of students heading South with cameras to document what it is like for a group of Mexican citizens to cross the border from Mexico to the US illegally and the students and their cameras come along for the ride, filming as they go. It starts in Mexico where they all meet up and head for the border. They use a 'drug tunnel' as their method of crossing the International border. Upon entering the US, they meet up with a U-Haul type truck near the highway where they are to be taken to a safe house. They gather in the back of the truck, and before they leave, the people in the back of the truck hear some talk, then 3 gunshots. Not knowing what happened, the truck begins to move. They end up in a compound run by masked American "patriots" who's goal is to punish the illegals for entering the US, and taking advantage of 'the system'. They all end up in some type of compound where they are questioned and tortured. During the process, some of them die at the hands of these masked 'patriots'. It seems these 'patriots' think they are protecting the US, and thus give them an excuse to torture these Mexicans and treat them like they are less than human, and torture them for crossing the border and taking advantage of the system. The American students are forced to document the torture using their cameras so the tapes will end up back in Mexico to be played in the media so other Mexicans who have a desire to enter the US illegally will reconsider their plan. There is quite a lot of torture scenes, and the captured Mexicans are treated like animals. Some of the scenes are difficult to watch, and depending on your political views, may consider some of the treatment of these prisoners justified, It is difficult to watch no matter your political views. Despite the torture scenes, it has the feel of a movie that has a higher budget than was allocated. It is well done, and the actors are well played. The movie focuses on a real problem the US faces, and shows the uglier side of this 'problem'. Despite the violence and torture, the masked 'patriots' make a point that many Americans feel. The violence borders excessive and it seems like the illegal crossing is just a way to justify torture of people. However, since this movie plays like something that could actually happen, and does it well, I rate it an 7. It's not a movie for children, though it is a well done drama that makes a point of how extreme political views can be carried out.

'Undocumented' follows a documentary crew who is attached to a group of Mexican immigrants who have paid enormous sums of money to a coyote (not the cat-snatching mongrel, rather a smuggler of people) to get into the United States. Illegally, in case you weren't getting the point. The irony is that legal entrance to the United States is cheaper and safer, if safety is part of the calculation - but that's politics, and a hard topic to rationally discuss in Texas, California, or Arizona.

Incredibly the creators of 'Undocumented' use blood and abject terror to drive the discourse in a way that TV's Border Wars simply cannot. And no matter what side you sit on the political spectrum, you will think about the subject matter.

The crew, the coyote, and the huddled and downtrodden Mexican subjects are high-jacked minutes after they cross the border. Since they are all in the back of a cargo truck, they all figure they're busted. What's unusual is that the Border Patrol doesn't normally take in the illegal aliens in the same transport carrying them. And they would probably not hear the coyote getting body-slammed and some stick-time just prior. They are all offloaded and corralled. The obviously American film crew are individually interrogated, blindfolded and bound, in an effectively disturbing series of cut shots.

They've been captured by an ultra-radical anti-(illegal)-immigration group: a more ruthless, sickeningly twisted, and better organized version of Arizona's Minutemen. There's really no dancing around that comparison. And they've got a message for the film crew they want to share.

The group's leader, "Z" says it best (though I gotta paraphrase it - I really didn't expect the movie to be quotable): "Whatever you think is going on here, this is worse." Straight talk, delivered in skull-cracking, blood-splashing, bone-splitting reality.

The synopsis on Time Warner described it as a "blood-soaked psychological thriller." And it is. I'll forgo much more plot description because it really needs to be seen to be understood. It's a fairly straightforward narrative, packed with tension and allegory. To tell you, dear reader much more is to spoil the uncomfortable fun.

The cast does exceptional and memorable work: Liz, the high-minded liberal producer (Alona Tal, of lots o' TV and voice-overs since 2003); her erstwhile boyfriend and the project's journo-opportunistic director, Travis (Scott Mechlowicz, of 'Eurotrip'); the Mexican émigré cousin, Alberto (the more-than-credible Yancey Arias) of one of the crew, Davie (Greg Serano, with a solid TV CV); and drug-using sound guy smart ass, Jim (Alias' Kevin Weisman).

Even the narratively expendable characters turn negligible "raw meat" roles into loss. The tragic chorus of ill-fated illegal aliens are authentic and utterly haunting, as if director Chris Peckover actually captured and tortured them. (He didn't. Right?)

The film treads the kind of suggested territory that franchise torture porn such as Hostel and Saw is awkwardly compelled to throw at the audience in explicit, anatomically-correct splatter. The argument that such franchises are simply satire is lost: 'Undocumented' is pure and sophisticated satire that teases the sensibilities of the viewer without abusing them into disaffection. You care. And stranger still, your perspective - your "side" - is apt to vacillate. It's a "hard" movie.

I could go on and on: I can't stop thinking about this film. I was on the edge of my seat early on, and gripped until the very end. It's a brilliant effort that touches nerves you may not even know you have. The closing shot and speech, the first reveal of the masked radicals, the enigmatic "Z" and the breadth of the cabal is unforgettable - cinema gold.

Oh, yeah, "Z" - played by an actor to whom most of the $1.4mm budget probably went, and well worth it - was the subject of a little game. We resisted looking him up until the end of the film. Neither I nor she won, but we both slapped our foreheads with a big old DUH.

A small group of documentary filmmakers chronicle the trials and inequities faced by Mexican illegal immigrants.

When they join a group of families illegally crossing the border to record the experience firsthand, their truck is pulled over and detained.

What happens next plunges their group into unimaginable horror.......

So the basic premise is simple, Mexicans try and cross the border into USA, and some make it, some get sent back, and others get caught by Peter Stormare and his masked henchman.

And if you get caught by the latter, you spend the rest of the film either getting tortured, questioned, or put in a room that looks really comfortable.

It's a sound idea, but it would have been a lot more convincing if this was full on found footage horror, not half and half like it is here. The film tries to be topical, tries to send a message of everyone is equal no matter who they are etc., but alas, it turns into torture porn, and spoils its good intentions.

The cast are okay, but they spend the entire movie panicking, in pain, or giving their captors a little bit of attitude before they in turn, act nice before torturing them.

And that's literally the film, a good idea, but it plays it too safe and goes down the normal horror route.

Picked randomly from the Pay-Per-View menu, UNDOCUMENTED is my surprise find of the year. I hesitate to call it my pleasant surprise, because while the discovery of a true horror gem flying under the radar can really warm my cockles, once the action here gets rollin', I was feeling more cold chills than warm fuzzies.

A group of young filmmakers in the process of making a documentary about illegal immigration across the Mexican border are apprehended by what we (and they) think are the police. In the trailer, we are told by an off- screen tormentor, "Whatever you think this is…it's far worse." Unfortunately, for our young heroes…he's not lying."

What starts off as a fairly routine shot-on-video, found footage movie quickly turns into a visceral and all-too-believable nightmare of American patriotism run amok. Our heroes and the immigrants they were following have been captured by a group of extreme nationalists who are looking to save our country by cleansing of the scourge that's ruining it. In other words, undocumented Mexicans sneaking over the border.

What really drove this home for me was how possible every horrific image or idea you're subjected is. As a country, we seem to have lost our minds on this subject. The inhuman acts going on right now in Arizona are not that far off from what's happening at the abandoned slaughterhouse in the movie. As a matter of fact, I wouldn't be surprised if something like is actually was going on…right now. Our villains here are not raving madmen. On the contrary, they are well spoken….charming, even…guys you'd probably love to have a beer with sometime in other circumstances. These men spill poison from their mouths, calmly. Rationally. Indeed, there might be a nugget of truth to it; a truth twisted into something hideous, but truth nonetheless. And part of me started to believe it. Just a little….teeny….tiny…bit.

Therein lies the horror.

I'm not a fan of torture horror movies, and that's coming from someone who's watched all the Saw movies. (Why? I guess I like punishing myself) but anyways, I love found footage horror movies I just don't like torture horror movies. And to make it worse, the victim's young daughter gets killed. But to be fair, the captors DID release all the immigrants children. So the children DID NOT get tortured too. So congrats on the captors for having SOME sense of humanity, but that's not saying much. Like one of the scenes, Alberto, (one of the immigrants) his torture session was being quizzed on America's history, and if he gets an answer wrong, his wife gets a body part taken off. I'm not a fan of this one. I just hate the fact that this movies villains are a group of people that hate immigrants. Not recommending.

There are a few movies I've seen where at the end I feel totally drained. I'm an extreme horror fan, and this film took me for a ride I hesitate to take again. This film falls in line with my favorite types of horror movies, the ones where the real monster is mankind, but this film took me to a place that was almost too dark.

The film, if you've heard anything of the plot, revolves around a young film crew that is shooting a documentary on the plight of illegal Mexican immigrants and decide to take it one step further by actually joining a group of immigrants as they cross the American/Mexican border. This highly illegal activity puts the entire operation in danger, but the immigrants are reassured since they have Americans in their midst. One young family in particular is featured as they express high hopes for a future free of the economic hardship they have back in Mexico. If anyone had any inkling about the direction their journey would take once on American soil, none of them would ever have taken it.

Enter the film's antagonists: so-called "Patriots". A group of paramilitary survivalist types who are nothing more than domestic-bred terrorists, who have taken it upon themselves to repel illegal Mexican immigration in their own special way. They are able rather easily to capture the group (including the film crew). They say they're willing to let the film crew go if they agree to shoot something of a "recruiting video" for their organization, which involves the most heinous tortures I can imagine (especially for the father of the young family I previously mentioned.) The director does an excellent job of placing us in the shoes of the naive film crew, as they are forced to document the crimes against humanity dealt out by the "Patriots". With their lives also threatened the crew sees little else they can do but stand by as the illegals are treated worse than animals. I personally felt the agony of the crew as you can see in their faces they are dying to do something to help the Mexicans. In many scenes, the actors apart of the film crew (Scott Mechlowicz, who I've been a fan of since "Mean Creek", in particular shows off his acting skills) have visible rage building up inside them. Several manage to try and help the victims, while others still try to escape and bring back help, only to be recaptured over and over again and degraded even further. Once they realize that their captors will probably kill them too, they know they must muster all their strength to try and somehow stop the madness going on around them before it's too late.

That's the gist of the movie, and while some may classify most of this movie as "torture-porn" I disagree. There certainly is torture involved, but anybody who might get off on this stuff is probably not right in the head. No, this film is different. This is a full-on assault of your senses and sensibilities.

Besides Mechlowicz, another stand-out in the cast is the great Peter Stormare (the lead nihilist in "The Big Lebowski"). He plays his role "Z", the leader of the "Patriots", convincingly and with considerable menace, and even with a certain amount of charm. To his credit, he does all of this without really showing his entire face throughout most of the movie. Alona Tal, the female lead, also plays her role well as one of the bravest members of the film crew, several times standing up against "Z" and his demented patriotism.

I wouldn't call this a political movie, but I do think it says something about people who think they have some sort of right that makes them better than others. Keep in mind this film repulsed me while at the same time showing me it was a very well-made little film. If you are willing to watch a challenging piece of quality cinema, with no fluff and lots of in-your-face cruelty, I suggest "Undocumented" is a great film to start with.