20 Socially Conscious Horror Movies
By Jenn Reid
Undocumented (2010)
The Issues: Undocumented immigrants, racism
The Movie:
A group of filmmakers are working on a documentary about undocumented immigrants in the U.S. The filmmakers and a group of immigrants are seeming stopped and arrested by Border Patrol and taken to a facility. Here they discover it is not the U.S. government but a militia of anti-Mexican citizens that has taken them hostage. The group call themselves ‘patriots’ and tell the filmmakers to document their torture of the immigrants and go free, or refuse and die with them. The filmmakers agree to film.
The leader quizzes one immigrant on facts about America. They’ll hurt his wife for every wrong answer. One of the filmmakers tries to give him an answer but it’s incorrect, so he and the wife are both killed.
The filmmakers try and fail to escape. The leader of the patriots brands the two surviving filmmakers and give them bats to attack a piñata that’s full of body parts. They use the bats to attack their captors and escape with one of the immigrants. They make it to safety and get the compound raided. However, the immigrants are still deported back to Mexico.
What It’s Saying:
The way certain Americans talk about and treat undocumented immigrants is abhorrent. It’s a straightforward message (not a lot of nuance in this one), but it’s a message all the same. Something could maybe also be said for the passivity of the filmmakers who agree to tape the events. The end definitely shows how cruel the system can be: the immigrants are deported and the racist patriots don’t seem to be deterred.