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Thursday, October 8, 2015

31 Days of Halloween 2015: Day 8





Dust Devil

1992
Richard Stanley

A woman named Wendy (Chelsea Field) is on the run from her husband in South Africa, so she drives up the coast to Namibia and the desert. There she meets a mysterious hitchhiker, who unknown to her had just finished up murdering, covering a house in strange symbols and taunting the police. Wendy and the strange man make a trip through the desert. A policeman on the trail of the hitchhiker encounters the notion that his quarry may be engaging in some kind of ritual practice and, in fact, may not even be human at all. Wendy is latest in a series of hopeless people that is drawn to the Dust Devil and she may be the one who finally sets him free.

Dust Devil is a brilliant art horror piece from the director of Hardware (1990).  Setting it in the deserts of Namibia among long stretch of desolate road and dusty towns gives it a unique feeling. The atmosphere is subdue. The quiet menace of the desert, matches that of the Dust Devil himself. The Dust Devil is a more complex being than it lets on, there is something very alien about him and how he emotionally connects to the world. It’s a captivating creation. The weirdness creeps in at the edges of the story and is punctuated with brief moments of violence. There is a drifting dream-like procession to the events, but the story remains very coherent and understandable throughout. Dust Devil is an excellent moody horror film.

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