Territories (2010)

The idea behind this film is great and the front cover depicting helpless individuals in cages is definitely eye catching. Then I read the back and was hooked and reaching for my wallet before heading to the tills. This is going to be another Red state, or from a horror and gore aspect, Frontiers. However, despite a well acted and promising start, things just didn't go anywhere. And as for the final third, point and what was it springs to mind. I have seen some disappointing films, such as the Hamiltons, but this, not only takes the biscuit, it is the biscuit. If you are in the mood to be bored, annoyed, frustrated I would suggest watching the new cartoon versions of scooby doo.........there is 100% more gore and suspense in an episode of that than is in this. I beg you not to watch as you cannot get those 90 minutes back

When I read the synopsis of this movie I was so excited to see it. The concept just seemed so interesting and original.It starts off with a kick, within minutes I was feeling the uneasiness that this movie is meant to inflict. Most of the actors are phenomenal, it's when I see movies like this that I don't understand how Hollywood can't cast better actors 90% of the time.The movie keeps a good steady pace, I wasn't bored at any point. Which is a feat considering my minuscule attention span.It was such a great movie until there was about 20 minutes left in the film. It takes a strange turn. I can't say much without giving it away. But when you see it you'll understand what I mean.I completely suggest it because other than that it's great. And who knows? You may like the ending more than me.

The whole movie starts pretty thrilling and interesting but after 45 minutes just gives up and stops the story. No kidding, the story just stops to exist - nothing ever gets revealed - and then it just ends.100 minutes of my life I will never get back. The actors were OK but let's be honest I don't watch a movie just because of good actors, especially when no one seems to know what they are acting for.All in all - not worth watching. You wont find anyone who liked it (unless being related to one of the crew or getting payed for it).I don't even know why they added that private detective after 47 minutes, gave up on all the main actors (except the bad guys) and went with a storyline that felt like just made up to find (a crappy) ending.

Deranged and sadistic psychopaths kidnapping randomly unfortunate travelers in remote areas with as sole purpose to humiliate, torture and eventually massacre them. There have been SO many movies with this exact same plot outline over the past five-ten years that it has almost become a sub-genre on its own; a hybrid between hillbilly-horror and torture-porn. The only more thing directors of these films can do to distinguish their effort from the others is being as creative and extreme as possible in drawing the characters of the psychopaths. The crazier, blood-thirstier and more perverted, the better. Olivier Abbou clearly understood that message, as the villains in his film "Territories" are uncannily straight-faced and nihilistic killers who recreated their very own and private mini-version of Guantanamo Bay in a deep-hidden forestry region on the Canadian border with America. Dressed as border patrol officers, the two apprehend a car full of twenty-something Americans returning home from a wedding. Okay, they have a broken headlight and were carrying a small dose of soft drugs, but the main reason they stopped the car is because the driver of the group is called Jalil El-Haddad. The fake officers accuse Jalil of terrorism and before they properly realize, the entire group is locked up in separate cages in the middle of the woods. Although well-made and occasionally very atmospheric, "Territories" inevitably remains a derivative and forgettable effort. The first half of the film is admirably tense and contains a number of unsettling shock-moments (the interrogations with the prisoners who are weakening physically as well as mentally), but still you can't escape the impression you have all seen this a dozen of times before. Then, rather incomprehensibly, the tone swifts during the third act with the introduction of a completely new protagonist. A hired private detective is on the lookout for the missing tourists and all of a sudden the plot exclusively follows him around, even to restaurants where he seduces waitresses and his motel room where he stuffs up his veins with heroin. He confronts the kidnappers a couple of times, but the victims and their continuously deteriorating conditions suddenly don't seem all that important anymore. The acting performances are more than decent and the filming locations are very effective, but the main impression raised by "Territories" is déjà-vu.