A small group of documentary filmmakers chronicle the trials and inequities faced by Mexican illegal immigrants.

When they join a group of families illegally crossing the border to record the experience firsthand, their truck is pulled over and detained.

What happens next plunges their group into unimaginable horror.......

So the basic premise is simple, Mexicans try and cross the border into USA, and some make it, some get sent back, and others get caught by Peter Stormare and his masked henchman.

And if you get caught by the latter, you spend the rest of the film either getting tortured, questioned, or put in a room that looks really comfortable.

It's a sound idea, but it would have been a lot more convincing if this was full on found footage horror, not half and half like it is here. The film tries to be topical, tries to send a message of everyone is equal no matter who they are etc., but alas, it turns into torture porn, and spoils its good intentions.

The cast are okay, but they spend the entire movie panicking, in pain, or giving their captors a little bit of attitude before they in turn, act nice before torturing them.

And that's literally the film, a good idea, but it plays it too safe and goes down the normal horror route.

OK, let's discuss the cinema verite.

All mexicans are good, family oriented, extraordinarily poor innocent people who only want to come to America the land of opportunity.

Of course, when you are on the wrong side of of the law, things tend to go haywire.

In a very obtuse way, this film reminded me of Midnight Express -- you know the film where libby liberal Hollywood wanted us to feel sorry for a guy who wants to brings back tens of pounds of pot to sell in the states, gets caught and is thrown in a Turkish prison.

From the get go there's no involvement in the main characters because they are breaking the law.

And to this point, if these Mexicans are so poor, how can they dig up thousands of dollars to be transported over the border? For next to nothing, they can buy a used car and drive over the border legally and just never go back.

It's ridiculous.

Ohm and then there's the fact they don't even look Mexican and dress way too nicely and have way too designer hairdoos to be remotely poor.

So in the first 10 minutes you just don't care about them and can't wait for the violence to ensue.

Parenthetically, one has to wonder why the "american" vigilantes all have Mexican accents. Jeeze this film is dumb.

One more thing -- when are you hack writers and directors going to stop putting in the signal less cellphone in the picture? It's been done in every movie like this. We get it.

It's dumb.

Let's be frank, this flick is nothing more than a pandering exploitation flick hoping to cash in on real problems the filmmakers are too dumb and vapid to understand.

It's a bore fest.

The hot chicks on vacation scenario is far more believable and entertaining. Go with that concept next time.

Travis (Scott Mechlowicz),Liz (Alona Tal),Davie (Greg Serano),and Jim (Kevin Weisman) are making a documentary about the abuses suffered by undocumented immigrants. They join Davie's cousin Alberto (Yancey Arias) and his family crossing the border when they are intercepted by a private militia. They are enlisted to film the horrors that follow.

This is a low-budget horror piggybacking on some immediate modern political issues. It's illegal immigration with a healthy dose of Abu Ghraib. The main characters don't get enough time to present themselves. It may work better to have only two filmmakers which would allow them more screen time to fill in their roles. The most annoying is the usual hand-held shaky camera work with some in night vision. There's too much of it and it's not necessary. I get it. They're an indie doc film crew. The premise has some promise but it needs some better imagination to spice it up. It needs to have some fun with this horror setup.