Horror in the High Desert Review

Horror in the High Desert review.

Horror in the High Desert combines found footage with a mockumentary style to slow build its premise. It feels like a feature version of an Unsolved Mysteries segment…only with the reenactments replaced by the found footage. The switch is what makes it effective.

Classic movie reviews will contain spoilers.

Horror in the High Desert

Directed by Dutch Marich

Written by Dutch Marich

Starring Suziey Block, Eric Mencis, David Morales, Tonya Williams Ogden and Errol Porter

Horror in the High Desert Review

Why is this so effective?  That’s the question I asked myself about a half dozen times during the final act of Horror in the High Desert.  I’ve seen countless found footage movies.  The number I found effective I can count on both hands.  For every The Outwaters and Deadstream there are roughly a hundred that don’t work.  Horror in the High Desert works.  It works because it makes an very effective choice to us its found footage as a method of telling its story…but not as the only method for telling its story.

The story of Horror in the High Desert is as simple as they come.  A young man disappeared in 2017.  Three years later loved ones and people who covered the case speak out about his disappearance.  Footage he filmed about the ordeal is shown throughout their stories.

It didn’t click with me until near the end of my viewing why this was so compelling.  It’s all very Unsolved Mysteries.  Anyone who watched the original Robert Stack led series back in the day will know exactly what I’m talking about.  You have talking heads describing events…and they are accompanied by reenactments of what might have happened.  It was often surprisingly terrifying for a 90s primetime television show aired on a commercial network.

Horror in the High Desert takes the model and turns it on its head by replacing reenactments with found footage.  Hearing people talk about the missing hiker Gary (Eric Mencis) is only so interesting.  Watching found footage of Gary discovering secrets on his path to impending doom…now we’re talking.  It’s a very smart use of the format.  Instead of getting trapped by the style (as so often happens), Horror in the High Desert uses it as a flourish.

The talking heads portion of the movie does what it needs to do.  We have the right mix of people guiding us through Gary’s journey.  We hear from his sister as well as from a friend.  An investigator and a reporter who covered the disappearance chime in as well.  That covers all the bases needed to paint a three-dimensional picture of Gary’s story.  It’s not the most interesting or entertaining part of Horror in the High Desert, but it is a necessary one.  Surrounding the footage by something so clinical makes it pop off the screen.  You can be swept up in it and believe that you are seeing something not meant to be seen.

The interspersed segments of found footage included in the first hour of Horror in the High Desert are mostly scene setting pieces as well.  We get to know Gary and understand what he’s doing out in the woods.  It too isn’t the most captivating aspect of the movie.  There’s nothing wrong with it…but it isn’t trying to be anything more than color commentary on the character and situation at this point.

If you add up the last two paragraphs you’ll find that I just described a full hour of an 82 minute movie as…fine.  Not scary and not overly interesting on its own.  That stands in stark contrast to the glowing words used in the opening of this review.  How can a movie mostly comprised of decent background story rise to a nearly great picture?  It saves the best for last.

The story builds to its inevitable conclusion.  Gary is missing. No footage found will undo that.  There is no twist held off for reveal.  No update to this unsolved mystery.  What we get is way better than that.

The final minutes of Horror in the High Desert display Gary’s final footage.  It’s as effective a use of found footage I’ve seen in film.  Aided by an extensive build to an inevitable darkness…we watch Gary head to his last known whereabouts.  We are cursed by the knowledge that he will not return.  That isn’t a new idea.  Most found footage horror comes with the expectation it isn’t going to end well for the person shooting it.  It’s not called “footage presented by a safe and happy director”.

What makes it so effective is that we didn’t spend the first 70 minutes becoming desensitized to the found footage format.  Here presented as the payoff to a journey…it becomes an anticipated treat.  And boy does it deliver.  The final minutes of Horror in the High Desert are among the most effectively frightening I’ve seen in some time.  More than worth the time spent listening to talking heads weave a fictional narrative around what amounts to some basic first person camera work.  The format lifts all aspects of the film. 

Horror in the High Desert is the product of creative storytelling done at the peak of Covid restrictions.  There is never more than one character on the screen at any point.  It’s done in a way that not only feels right for the story…but natural given the format.  In some ways it is the simplest concept.  People warn you that something scary has happened…and then they show it to you.  Sometimes the simplest concepts can be the most effective.

Scare Value

The final 15 minutes of Horror in the High Desert are incredibly effective. That’s where the effective horror of the piece is. It works because the format builds to it in such a realistic way. You can’t help but be sucked in. While the first 3/4s of the movie have some spots that drag…it still works out in the end. Well…not for Gary, I guess.

3.5/5

Horror in the High Desert Links

Streaming on Tubi

Rent/Buy on VOD from Amazon

Horror in the High Desert Trailer

If you enjoyed this review of Horror in the High Desert, check out the sequel