Territories – 2010 – The ultimate terror flick?
To be honest, it was the cover of this DVD that made me initially buy it. There’s something about that raw image that appeals to me. There’s almost a voyeuristic feel to it. Like that you are the spectator of the event but not really participating in it. That is true with most movies of course but I feel this could almost be a genuine story and that you can almost be there. That’s what I feel about the cover art at least. Territories itself, the movie, doesn’t have quite the same feeling over it. I think that’s a good thing though because if the movie followed the cover art concept, we would have a static camera somewhere to catch everything.
Instead, the camera work in Territories is shaky and could almost be a found footage kind of flick. It isn’t though, just almost. There is filming done by the perpetrators but as we see them film it kind of disqualifies it as found footage.
What we have is five friends driving home from a wedding. They come to the border and there the journey stops. Or the adventure to come takes its beginning perhaps. At first, the border patrol seems friendly enough but soon it becomes a nightmare. The kids get officially arrested and taken into custody. But there is no police station to be found. Instead, they are dragged into the woods and put in cages. They may have done nothing wrong but now they’re in the hands of these maniacs. The torture begins and the captivity is total.
This is a horrific story, to say the least. It’s very realistic when it comes to violence and you can very well believe that it could happen for real. Think about it. Some kids are taken into the woods, put in cages, branded, and held for torture. There are stranger things happening in this world. I like the raw atmosphere and the feel och helplessness. I get some of the political parallels. And I think the intent of the movie is to make a statement of sorts. I could be wrong of course and that the shock value is the main agenda. It’s not as interesting as a film with a political agenda (even if you don’t agree with the message) but that’ll do as well.
