Review of Borderland

For a while the wildly narcissistic Adolfo Constanzo, with his partner Sarah Aldrete, a woman he was unable to have sex with because of his preference for boys, held sway over minor drug cartel leaders down in Mexico, by selling his services, billable hours, as a Black Santeria priest, able to magically make their enemies dissappear. Regarding these Voodoo based dissappearances, his magic consisted of tracking and murdering victims, usually dismembering them alive, and feeding their body parts into his ever-voracious Nganga, the evil smelling pot that is the tool of choice for self-appointed wizard/priests of his chosen religion. His money and reputation attracted a large group of delusional followers, who believed that under the protection of their "Padrino" and "Madrino", they had literally become invisible, and were able to conduct their bizarre depradations completely unseen. Of course this is how many were caught, driving their invisible van and invisible bodies through very visible police dragnets. As for the Padrino himself, barricaded in an apartment, his invisible lifeless carcass, a suicide, and not by machete, his magical favorite tool to magically seperate souls from bodies, was taken away by the police for interment. This was certainly a colorful case history, even for Matamoros, a town that has seen more then its share of special caperings. I describe the case at some length because this awful movie, "loosey" based on these crimes, doesn't even scratch the surface of anything about Constanzo, Aldrete, their motives, history, or the final escapades that made them notorious for a while. The talented Damián Alcázar does show up as a sort of tour guide for some Americans trying to find their kidnapped friend, loosely based on the abduction-murder of Mark Kilroy, an adventuring American pre-med student, who got out of his depth fast. His dissappearance was actually missed by monied Americans,as this time it wasn't a dispensable local peasant that got snatched, so it triggered the investigation that ended the group's activities. Sometimes people get motivated and mysteries get solved, when the magical elixer of cash enters the magic pot. But Damián, the only actor I'm familiar with, is wasted here. If you want to see what he can do, watch Cronicas, based on the humid crimes of Pedro Lopez "The monster of the Andes", and possibly the most prolific serial killer that ever lived, a man released from prioson at the height of his crimes, though "the authorities' were completely aware of his guilt. Some of these towns are great places for people who have no boundaries. Anyway, Borderland is a trite and stupid production, not only wildly innacurate, at least according to the most thorough books on the topic, Buried Secreets, and Cauldron of Blood. I remember the case well from the eighties', because of its Mansonesque similarities. Read the books about the case, it's a lot more interesting then this pale shadow.