The Scariest Thing About This Horror Movie Is How Much You’ll Laugh

This article contains mild spoilers for “Borderline.”

Following the Los Angeles premiere of “Borderline,” the feature directorial debut of “Cocaine Bear” writer Jimmy Warden, the director acknowledged that when a male singer is belting out the lyrics to Madonna’s “Borderline,” suddenly the lyrics become deeply unsettling. There’s an acknowledgement that a social contract has been destroyed. It’s cute and playful to watch a young woman giggle her way through hyperbolic statements like “You just keep on pushin’ my love over the borderline,” but when men do the same, it starts to sound like a threat. These gendered expectations, social contracts, and implicit assumptions are the border lines of Warden’s freshman directorial effort, where a spunky, ’90s pop star named Sofia (Samara Weaving) is terrorized in her own home by a delusional fan named Paul (Ray Nicholson) who is convinced that not only are the two destined to be married, but that they’ve been in a relationship for years.

It’s easy to laugh at a guy like Paul, because despite his unquestionable good looks and megawatt smile (that he can thank his famous father’s genetics for providing), he’s just so pathetic. When we first meet Paul, we’re welcomed into his twisted fantasy of marrying Sofia, one he narrates to the viewers will be what we see at the end of the story. The film’s cold open sees him successfully making his way into Sofia’s luxurious mansion while she’s thankfully not home; taking his shoes off at the door, doing his laundry in her machines, trying out her recording equipment in her private studio, and even taking a bubble bath in her jacuzzi tub. He frolics around her house like a child left overnight in a toy store, and Nicholson’s performance is so damn electrifying, you can’t help but let out a chuckle despite the fact he gained access to the mansion by stabbing her security guard, Bells (Eric Dane), who is currently bleeding out in the driveway.

“Borderline” has plenty of intentional moments of hilarity because Warden is a deeply funny writerbut the scariest thing about his horror comedy is just how often you’ll laugh. Because it’s a story that forces the audience into so much discomfort, if you don’t laugh, you’re bound to lose your mind.

It’d be easy to mistake “Borderline” as nothing more than an odd, sometimes screwball comedy with bits of graphic violence thrown in for good fun, but Warden’s script is downright fascinating in the way it plays with spectator conjectures about the characters, and what it leaves out to force us to project those assumptions onto them. We learn that Paul experienced a traumatic event during one of Sofia’s concerts, and it’s implied but never confirmed that this is what caused him to have a detachment from reality. But we don’t know much more than that. There’s no way for us to know if this event was what truly broke him, or if he was broken long before. We know that when he shows up on Sofia’s doorstep for the first time in the film, it is not the first time he’s shown up there as he and her security guard are not only on a first name basis, but Bell seems to already know that the best course of action is to validate Paul’s mistaken belief systems. He shows us time and time again that he is a formidable threat, but no one seems to take his presence seriously until it’s too late. Is this commentary on how little we invest in men’s mental health or how unserious the 1990s was as a decade regarding the safety of famous women? “Borderline” doesn’t give us easy answers, which may frustrate some, but provides plenty of space for discourse.

It’s also easy to immediately root for Sofia, not only because she’s Samara Weaving (and everybody loves Samara Weaving!) but also because her existence as a beautiful, blonde, white woman tends to garner implicit sympathy (learn about missing white woman syndromeif you’re not already familiar). Even after we learn that Sofia’s newfound relationship with an NBA player named Rhodes (the always fantastic Jimmie Fails) was initially organized as a publicity stunt and that she’s so rich she has never felt the need to learn where the circuit breaker is in her own home, we still root for her. In any other movie, a character like Sofia would be “unlikable,” but what makes “Borderline” such a smart story is that it serves as a reminder that there’s no such thing as a perfect victim, and even “unlikable” people deserve to be spared from the emotional (and physical) terrorism that comes from a fan like Paul too.

“Borderline” allows Nicholson and Weaving to make a feast out of their characters (especially Nicholson), but the script is a comedy of errors that wreaks havoc on all involved. When you’re too busy laughing to pay attention to the danger Paul presents, it’s no surprise why he’s able to get away with as much as he has.

The film is set in “1990-something,” and while there aren’t many script-required aspects of the film itself that remind you it’s a 1990s movie outside of the aesthetics or lack-of-cell-phones and Wi-Fi that would have thwarted Paul’s plans before they even began, the thematic core and subversion of pop culture references are firmly in the decade. Sofia and Rhodes are essentially avatars for Madonna and Chicago Bulls player Dennis Rodman, a man who famously shut down Fifth Avenue in New York City for wearing a wedding dress to his book signing.

“Borderline” doesn’t forget that iconic moment, but completely twists it on its head into something actually horrific, as if to look back at all of the people who decried the end of civilization because one of the best rebounders in NBA history wore a dress in public to say, “No, you fools, THIS is what should terrify you.” And yet, because too many people are still too uncomfortable to process a masculine person in feminine attire, they are going to laugh. In the same way that the general public likely doesn’t remember Rodman’s basketball stats or the horrific allegations lobbied against him but do remember his penchant for wearing “women’s” fashion, “Borderline” knows exactly how the audience is going to react, and uses it to the film’s advantage. Quite frankly, much of the movie operates like a Rorschach test — the reaction to the horror at hand says far more about the reactor than it does the movie for including it.

And that’s the power of the movie. Admittedly, the pacing can be a bit troublesome at times (especially the beginning) and the logic is less airtight and more “drafty Midwest window in the middle of winter,” but none of that matters when you give yourself over to the world that Warden created, because it’s not all that dissimilar from the one we currently live in. Sure, the film is set in the 1990s, but with a few wardrobe changes, this story could exist in any period. The more things change, the more they stay exactly the same. The audience reaction then is the audience reaction now. And my god is it spine-chilling to have to accept.

“Borderline” is a hell of a fun time at the movies and boasts some pretty fantastic performances, which, yes, include a lot of laughs to be had. “Warrior Nun” star Alba Baptista is a total scene-stealer as Penny, an equally disturbed French girl who essentially serves as the Harley Quinn to Paul’s Joker. But between every punchline (I audibly guffawed when a young girl accuses Paul of putting a priest in a box and he retorts, “We put a pastor in a box. We’re Protestants.”) there is the simmering, terrifying reminder that “Borderline” is not out of the realm of possibility, and is far more common than the general public realizes.

Sure, most people are aware of the horrific tragedies unleashed on figures like Selena Quintanilla-Pérez, John Lennon, and actress Rebecca Schaeffer, but how many people know about former WWE Superstar Sonya Deville (real name Daria Berenato) who was stalked by a fan online who eventually broke into her home with a knife, plastic zip ties, duct tape, and mace? How many people know that “iCarly” star Miranda Cosgrove’s stalker lit himself on fire and shot himself in her front yard after shooting a woman in her neighborhood that looked like her? Does the general public know that Miley Cyrus has had multiple stalkers, including one who was arrested before claiming “it’s my life’s mission to impregnate (her)?” Or do people only pay attention to these stories when the celebrities wind up dead?

We’ve been trained to laugh at these miserable “reply guys” when they’re blowing up a celebrity’s Instagram page with desperate thirst comments and teach women to “just ignore the trolls.” This is all to say, Jimmy Warden’s movie is absolutely terrifying not just because “diabolically unwell man stalks woman and holds her (and others) hostage to put on a wedding” is a frightening concept, but because guys like this exist and they are historically never taken seriously.

“Borderline” knows this and uses it against its audience. As long as we’re laughing at the cop doing a jazz square, the security guard trying to eat food that’s too hot just out of the microwave, or the grown man who believes he’s been in a relationship with a pop star he’s never met, we won’t know what hit us until it’s too late.

“Borderline” is currently playing in limited theaters and is available on VOD.