This is a very unique take on the slasher genre, which is what prompted me to watch it in the first place. But unfortunately it ended up feeling bland thanks to extremely lazy writing. It reminded me a lot of the movie Blue Ruin, a movie that put all of its energy into cinematography whilst neglecting everything else. Which seems to be a trend with a lot of modern indie movies.

The characters in this movie sucked, the Mexicans that were being hunted down barely said a word even when they were fighting for their lives. And the villain himself never expressed any real motivation for what he was doing, you COULD just say he was racist but simply making assumptions is not enough. This was a chance to explore various political and racial tensions, perhaps give the villain a backstory that explains how he came to hate Mexicans so much. But no, the writer seemed to lack any creativity and just thought "white man hate Mexican, white man kill Mexican. the end".

The villain never once says a racial slur, or anything negative about Mexicans that would give context to his actions. He just strolls through the movie like a Terminator which was quite disappointing. Overall, the fresh concept kept me engaged, but i knew the entire time that i wasn't watching a good movie.

This is one of those films that takes some time and consideration to fully assess.

One one level, it's a straight-forward action/thriller with a unique and interesting setting. Heroes and antiheroes pervade as we are plunged into what is for most of us a new experience and reality. Of course, one that is fully fictionalized. If you can get the emotional distance to view it as such, the film works fairly well, even though it follows a fairly predictable narrative arc that we have seen in many other contexts. (Boy meets cat, boy saves cat, boy better save cat again and again and again, etc.)

On another level this film serves as a none-too-subtle political and terse philosophical commentary about current disagreements within the United States of America and her southern bordering nation. In this aspect the film uses all the finesse of a sledgehammer meeting a mosquito, with thinly developed two-dimensional characters that later on still seem to betray themselves far too quickly. In this aspect the film seems to fail in changing minds (if expected to engage the "other") or succeed in reinforcing biases (if expected to create our oh-so-delightful echo chambers).

I can imagine this film really working well in a different time and place, but in our current historical context--for which it was undoubtedly developed and funded--it just doesn't work all that well.

My advice: watch if you can lay down your ideologies, sink into the experience and enjoy it as an action/thriller. If you can't do that you will likely find yourselves aggravated by the experience no matter where you fall on the ideological spectrum. (3/5)