In the lead up to the VOD release of Color out of Space, Iain finally gets around to watching director Richard Stanley’s previous works from the 1990’s. Last week, it was sci-fi slasher/thriller Hardware, this week: 1992’s Dust Devil.
A mysterious, charismatic hitchhiker in a long leather trench-coat and hat, ritualistically slaughters a woman at her isolated homestead. Wendy, a dissatisfied South African housewife runs away from her suburban life. A Namibian cop tries to solve a series of murders going back decades, as the South African authorities crumble in a newly independent Namibia. After the slow burn world building of Hardware, the pace of Dust Devil comes as quite a shock.
Based upon a series of real life murders that were attributed to the “Nhadiep”, Dust Devil assumes a supernatural culprit. From the film’s opening moments there no doubt who the killer is. We see the creepily dashing wanderer played by Robert John Burke (Robocop 3, Officer Patrick Simmons from Person of Interest) kill his latest victim. Exerting some unknown power over her, he paints her house in her own blood. Instead of chasing the killer, the film is more concerned with investigating who he is. What does he want? Is Wendy (Chelsea Field, Teela from 1987’s Masters of the Universe) destined to become his next victim? Will Sgt. Ben Mukurob (Zakes Mokae) stop him before it is too late?
Twin Peaks, SA?
The film isn’t in any rush, however, to resolve (or even get to) most of these plot threads. Instead it explores the desert, local legends, and the odd inhabitants of Bethany, Namibia. A dead end town where people always get on the train to leave but no one ever gets off.
William Hootkins (Porkins from Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope) turns up again, this time as a much friendlier face than in Hardware. It’s still the face of South African occupation though. Simon Boswell also returns on soundtrack duties, although the whale song infused synths aren’t as easy to mosh to as Hardware’s chaotic metal soundtrack.
Along with a pair of gormless, yet brutal deputies, and a man with a shovel who turns up just at the right time, the characters combine to give the film a Twin Peaks vibe. If anything Dust Devil is even more dreamlike than David Lynch and Mark Frost’s take on serialised television.
“There’s a Whole Lot of Power In Fingers”
Wendy wanders in and out of the clutches of the charming Dust Devil as dreams become mixed up with reality. Sgt. Mukurob slowly looks into both the supernatural and earthly aspects of unsolved murders going back decades. All the disparate elements never quite came together for me.
The film has has a lot of interesting ideas. Investigating race in Namibia as apartheid era South Africa pulls out. How the perfect disguise for a murdering monster is that of a dashing white man with an American accent. Is he even a monster if his victims are already set on their own path to death and destruction? If he only chooses those who have “nothing”? The film doesn’t really follow up on any of these satisfactorily and in the end it’s not even clear if the Dust Devil really has been vanquished.
“This Stuff, To Know It, You Have To Believe It”
That said there is still plenty to like here. With his steely stare, trademark hat and coat, and somewhat tragic backstory the Dust Devil himself could have joined the ranks of doomed dark romantic horror icons like Tony Todd’s Candyman.
Chelsea Field’s Wendy evolves into a steely final girl in the mould of Sarah Connor, and the late Zakes Mokae is great as the last detective in town. It’s just the story around them that lets them down.
The film uses it’s desert locale beautifully, climaxing in a game of cat and mouse though rooms half filled with sand, in a town that is slowly being devoured by the desert. The camera never seems to stop moving either. Stanley having apparently decided that it’s better to film even the most basic scenes with the camera on the move, rather than plopping it down anywhere. During a scene when the Dust Devil suddenly disappears from Wendy’s car, a beautiful shot reveals just how insignificant Wendy in the landscape around her. In the days before drones its pretty obvious the camera was loaded onto the back of a truck and driven away at speed, but the effect is staggering nonetheless.
It is, however, just not quite enough to safe the muddled narrative.
While Hardware took it’s sci-fi slasher premise and stretched it out to an impressive future nightmare, Dust Devil unfortunately feels like series of beautiful vistas and cool ideas in search of a tighter overarching plot.
Dust Devil: The Final Cut
108 minutes
Director: Richard Stanley
Writer: Richard Stanley
Cast: Robert John Burke, Chelsea Field, Zakes Mokae, John Matshikiza, Rufus Swart, and William Hootkins
Coming Real Soon: Iain finally takes a look at Stanley’s Color Out Of Space
