FRONTIER(S) (2007)

When this delightful film opens, our young heroes are running with a bag full of stolen money, shooting into a group of innocent people and then pistol whipping a random dude. How nice. After escaping Paris, they drive out to the countryside and then pull over to spend a peaceful night at a hostel that anybody with even 1% of self-preservation would avoid like the plague. Somehow failing to notice that their hosts are literally murderous Nazi psychopaths, they not only rent a room but eat dinner with them and even have sex with two of the women…I think. The entire scene was shot so vaguely that I’m not really sure what happened.

Eventually we get to the violence and…it’s okay. With douchebag criminals on one side and Nazi's on the other, there’s nobody to root for, so you just hope for as much of the old ultraviolence as possible. Skull bashing, throat ripping, hatchet chopping, Achilles tendon trauma, meat hook hanging, cooked alive, table saw body slam. The amount of mayhem was passable, but the gun play towards the end seemed out of place. I would have much rather seen somebody getting butchered in gnarly and crazy ways than simply being shot to death.

As it is though, FRONTIER(S) is still a mildly good time. Annoying shaky cam, muted colours, meh lighting, boring casting choices, only one memorable character (Goetz), uneven pace, okay special effects, interesting bad guy lair that could have been better utilized in the story, average acting, a disappointing lack of "Who u think ur frontin'?" jokes, a few good kills, lame ending, distracting overacting by the Final Girl. FRONTIER(S) is nothing life changing, but worth checking out for horror fans.

I remember this film being kinda popular when it originally came out. Curious as to why there was never a sequel? The elements are all there for an improved continuation of the story…or even a remake at this point.