On Criterion, I watched the 1992 supernatural horror film Dust Devil, directed by Richard Stanley (Hardware, The Island of Dr. Moreau, Color of Space), and really liked it a lot. It had a Western meets horror vibe to it, set in the small town of Bethanie, Namibia, where a mysterious shapeshifter (Robert John Burke) poses as a hitchhiker in the desert and murders his victims, believed to be known as the "Dust Devil"; a local cop, Sgt. Ben Mukurob, (Zakes Mokae) is investigating the grisly murders and consulting a witch doctor on the supernatural elements of it, and a South African woman (Chelsea Field) is escaping her abusive husband, on a journey with no real destination.
The three all intersect with each other, and the film had this stunning look to it with the Namibian desert and haunting dreamlike atmosphere of the horror genre, where the shapeshifter justifies his murders by claiming he finds people who want to die, as if he is performing a mercy on them. I didn't fully believe that, as his methods of murder were pretty gruesome and awful, whether murdering a woman during sex or massacring a man in a bloody manner. Burke does have a great psychotic look to his eyes, where he can just be silent with a piercing, unsettling stare that one could find chilling in real life.
Chelsea Field was great as Wendy, as a woman looking for an escape from her awful husband, who slaps her and accuses her of infidelity, and she takes off from South Africa to Bethanie in Namibia, just on a journey for a way out. Field is stunning, with a muscular, lean figure, and she also casts a haunting look over the desert in her long purple dress, and is both attracted to the Dust Devil and disturbed by him.
Zakes Mokae was excellent as the local cop Sgt. Mukurob, as a more unique character as a Namibian cop in a Western horror movie, being one of the heroes of the film, using both detective skills and supernatural knowledge to find the Dust Devil. He would also stand up to Wendy's idiot husband, who has come looking for her and stands out as a clueless white Afrikaner among Namibian men, especially in a time that was just two years away from the abolishment of apartheid. Mokae also played a cop in Body Parts, the film I previously reviewed, so it was great to see him pop up again as an interesting and underrated character actor, who passed away in 2009 from a stroke.
I really adored this film, I loved how it felt surreal and strange and weird and beautiful, and I'm happy I got to watch it.
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