Dust Devil (1992)

Really Surprised!

Good concept, poorly executed.

Tells a fascinating and unsettling true story, and does so well, without pretending to have all the answers.

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

Some films are the stuff of legend because they are beastly gory, others because of the impact they have on the scene. And one film is a legend because it has been under the radar for far too long.'Devil delivers almost-epic horror. But when it first hit video stores in '93 it was barely noticed. Although heavily butchered by the Weinsteins, there has always been something deeply special about 'Devil. Underground horror circles were the first to celebrate it, and it was only a matter of time before it started building its number of loyal aficionados. Various versions came and went, however, it wasn't until '07 that the quest for Richard Stanley's true version has come finally to an end. The difference between the messy '92-deconstruction (US-Cut) and the '07-reconstruction (Final Cut) is night and day – it almost feels like two different movies. Maybe not in terms of quantity, but in terms of quality.Horror is supposed to thrill, and 'Devil does it fantastically. But if Guts & Gore is what you want – then this isn't the type of movie you're looking for. Oozing psychedelic Sergio Leone vibes from every pore, 'Devil hijacks horror for 108 minutes and breaks out in a flamboyant direction bordering on mythical existentialism. A fuzzy menace hanging over the Namibian desert like an oppressive cloud gives Devil its own unique flavor.By the way, it's also a political testament to the dark past of South Africa's apartheid. A world crumbling down during the filming of 'Devil, and a world that thankfully no longer exists.Fair warning here: This one gets trippy. Guess a lot of people find it too vague, too fluffy, too spacy. And I can understand that. Personally, I love spiraling into this Nietzschean and symbolically overloaded world. I have always admired the catchy noirish touch. In marked contrast to pretty much every David Lynch labyrinth, Devil is both clearly and darkly, epic and ambiguous, unorthodox but familiar.In an age where everything seems like it's been done 100-times before, 'Devil arguably has no equal. The imagery, the music, the attitude – this film still is magic. Hell yeah, this is the Blade Runner of mystery. Watch accordingly!

Since the beginning of time strange creatures known as "shape-shifters" have taken human form and fed on the life-essence of human beings prior to passing on to another dimension. This movie begins with such a creature nicknamed "Texas" (Robert John Burke) who can harness the wind over the desert terrain to form what the natives of Namibia call a Dust Devil. Yet while he certainly has great power the fact that he is trapped in human form gives him certain weaknesses which native witch doctors are able to understand to a certain degree. This valuable information is passed on to a police detective named "Ben Mukurob" (Zakes Mokae) who is witnessing first-hand the bloody destruction which Texas leaves in his wake as he devours one human being after another. Now rather than reveal any more of this movie I will just say that for a horror film it had great potential. Unfortunately, there were some parts which moved much too slowly and involved quite a bit of mumbo-jumbo but failed to adequately explaining anything. It was almost like they were making stuff up as they went along. So essentially viewers have no choice but to simply watch what happens next and try to figure everything out for themselves. That said, although I thought the special effects were good and I liked the presence of Chelsea Field (as "Wendy Robinson") I still felt that the movie overall needed some improvement and as a result I have rated it accordingly. Slightly below average.

Very unknown and definitely very under appreciated early 90's horror film, revolving around a particularly unique idea, and a particularly unique villain at that. The film is definitely a slow-burner, Richard Stanley's final cut clocking in at around two hours long. Not saying that is an entirely bad thing, but there are moments when the film drags its feet.The film is slightly sparse on the dialogue, giving way to let the haunting musical score do most of the talking. The visuals speak on their own terms as well, the African sunset to an abandoned movie theater in the middle of the desert filled with sand, the film comes off as some kind of bizarre western. The acting isn't anything to brag about, but it is definitely of a very high caliber for horror movies, although 'Dust Devil' is so ripe with slow-moving action, I would almost not even consider it horror at all. Inspired probably by 'El Topo' and probably did inspire films like Larry Fessenden's 'Wendigo' just a little bit, 'Dust Devil' has a very unique story behind it, which is probably the film's strongest point.Zekes Mokae is probably most notable as the detective, and he definitely outshines Chelsea Field, and Robert John Burke as the 'Dust Devil' himself. All in all, recommended for the horror buff who can tolerate slow-moving melodrama and a good story to back up their thrills.DUST DEVIL -----7/10.

"Dust Devil is one of the only 90's horror classics!" "The special edition DVD from Subversive Cinema is finally a release worthy of this film". "If you haven't seen Dust Devil yet, you're in for a brilliant and refreshing horror surprise". Okay, these are some of the ultimately praising comments I encountered on "Dust Devil" and apparently a lot of people are astonished if you claim you're a horror fanatic and yet haven't seen this film. Now, after borrowing the deluxe DVD-edition from a friend and finally having seen the film, all I can say is … Is that it?!? This is the supposedly brilliant and original 90's classic that I desperately had to watch in order to keep calling myself a horror buff? I mean, it's a respectable and ambitious film and definitely benefices from a handful of unique elements, but I honestly expected more in terms of plot originality and production values. "Dust Devil" boosts an incredibly rudimentary and hugely derivative plot, but writer/director Richard Stanley ("Hardware") effectively camouflages this through sensationally breath-taking filming locations, ultimately ominous sound effects & music and some extremely blatant gore effects. Filmed in one of the most beautiful regions of the world – the South African/Namibian deserts, "Dust Devil" introduces a drifting stranger who gets picked up by a beautiful woman and brought back to an isolated guest house for a night of passionate sex. However, the drifter is an ancient demoniacal African shape-shifter feeding on the despair of depressed people and thus viciously butchers the woman and sets her house on fire before hitching onwards. Next victim is the insecure South African housewife Wendy Robinson, who finally dared to leave her dominant husband and now journeys through the desert on her way to the sea. Meanwhile, the fatigue police officer Ben Mukurob hasn't got the slightest trace to follow and enlists the help of a spiritual cinema projector to learn more about the unusual serial killer. Basically, "Dust Devil" is simply a standard horror story about a traveling serial killer and all the supernatural gibberish and typically African talk about magic are totally irrelevant. The film is amazingly atmospheric and often downright scary, but only thanks to the godforsaken and desolate locations and nightmarish music, because all the rest is disappointingly amateurish. The narration, for example, is completely uninformative and quite annoying. Stanley's subtly processed lectures on South African politics feel somewhat obtrusive whereas the actually relevant dialogs are extremely weak. Worst of all, however, are the irredeemably awful acting performances from the ensemble cast. I personally never liked Robert John Burke but definitely expected a better and more vivid job from Chelsea Field.