From zero to hero I got two very different reviews tonight. Mark (I'm still working on it) Young's 'Tooth & Nail' and 'Borderland'. Both of which come from After Dark's second run on there '8 Films to Die For' series. Now there is something in common with both of these films. Nooo, I already know there both horror films, you sassy minx. They both star Rider Strong! That's right everyones favorite bad boy, Shaun Hunter. I thought it was funny that I ended up picking the two After Dark films that stared Strong. So it was a very 'Boy Meets World' kinda night for me.

Before I start I would just like to thank my DVD supplier Eddie for hooking me up with these and allot of the other horror films I review. Without you I would be paying to watch allot of these painful (and sometimes not so painful) films.


Tooth and Nail


This was the first on my list, pretty much because my roommates saw Vinnie Jones and Michael Madsen were in the film. That does not make a film by any means. (Anyone see BloodRayne and X3?)

The premise for this film was a pretty neat and intriguing. What if the world ran out of gasoline? Electricity would not work, shipments for food would come to a stand still. Our world as we know it would come to an end and we would be the death of ourselves.
The film takes place after this apocalypse. We follow a group of people trying to survive held of in a hospital. We get a feel for the characters and watch them argue and figure out what there next step will be in surviving. That is until a young woman (Rachel Miner) shows up and everything changes.

Actually you should really just watch this film up till this point and turn it off. Nothing happens! The films great premise just goes down the drain when mid way through. Viking cannibal's come to find more food....yeah. I don't know what happens but everything turns upside down. Maybe I would not mind the bad writing if the gore was still kind of there but it really wasn't. So this wasn't even one of the " its bad but the kills were nice" films. It was just a bad BAD film. And just when you think it can't get any worse, it gets ten times worse!
There were maybe about two good actors in this film. Rider Strong being one of them, but he was not good in this film. His bad boy persona left him in the 90's. The other good actor was Michael Kelly (Dawn of the Dead remake) but he's in 30% of the film.
The ending of this film is so god awful and out of place re-writes had to have happened, and if so I really hope who ever re-wrote the ending should be hung. You thought Dr. Satan in Rob Zombie's 'House of 1000 Corpses' was out of left field? Watch Tooth & Nail.

I give 'Tooth and Nail'...



Borderland


I have to be frank with you all. I'm not a huge fan of the '8 Films to Die For' series. Pretty much everyone I have seen has been pretty god awful. Though even though pretty much all of them are bad I still try and give credit where credit is due. Whether it's for acting, plot, gore. But i'll tell you something. Borderland blew me away!
You know there are so many horror films built on the whole "teens going to get drunk in different county's and getting slaughtered" thing. They are a dime a dozen now days after 'Hostel' took off in theaters. I wont lie, I cringed a bit when I noticed thats what 'Borderland' was about. But this film took it in a whole new direction.

The film is based on true events. It follows three guys getting ready to go off to big colleges and start there lives. They want one last 'hurrah' and decide to head out to the boarder. But what they find there are more then just hookers and drugs. But a drug runner of god like proportions that has a village following his every need. The cops wont even get near him. So what happens when one of our three friends (You guessed it, Rider Strong) gets captured and set to be sacrificed?
This film really asks the question 'Do your friends really give two shits about you?' Would they come rescue you if everything was at stake?
One star that stuck out in this film for me was our favorite hobbit (Sean Astin) who plays a very interesting character named Randall who kidnaps Strong's character. Astin's roll is very strong in this film making him likable at first but we soon realize he's a very nice guy.
All the acting in the film was top notch and believable which carried the story well. Also for all you gore hounds out there, the violence is there to. All I gotta say is limbs come off.
The story felt very real and gritty. We see sides of the border that nobody needs to actually see.

From start to finish this film had me on the edge of my seat. And I was not disappointed one bit. 'Borderland' just goes show that there are a few gems in the '8 Films to Die for' series.

I give 'Boarderland'...