5. Borderland (2007)
Inspired by: Adolfo de Jesús Constanzo
Despite favorable reviews, Borderland isn’t one of those horror films that ever gained much of a following. That’s a shame, not just because it has a solid reputation, but also because it’s based on the very real and horrific crimes of Adolfo de Jesús Constanzo.
Constanzo was a drug lord, serial killer, and cult leader (the bad guy’s holy trinity) who led the Narcosatanists, a gang/cult who were involved in numerous ritualistic killings in the ’80s.
Despite being raised a Catholic, as Constanzo grew he became fascinated with Haitian Vodou, and went on to practice a religion called Palo, which involves animal sacrifice. After spending much of his life sacrificing animals and impressing all the wrong sorts of people, he made connections with Mexico’s most dangerous criminals, and soon got involved with drug cartels. He began using human remains for his spells, which before long, turned into sacrificing human lives. The cult killed more than twenty people before Constanzo decided he needed the brain of an American student (perfectly logical, I suppose), and abducted Mark Kilroy from outside a Mexican bar. The cult murdered him, and this, combined with the fact that they were all certifiably insane, led to their eventual deaths/capture. (Constanzo ordered one of his followers to kill him so that he wouldn’t be arrested.)
The full history of Constanzo and the Narcosatanists is pretty gruesome (and interesting), and Borderland does a good job of translating the real horrors they inflicted on their victims to the screen. It’s not a direct dramatization of the established crimes of the Narcosatanists, but their horrific deeds heavily inspired the film.