As you get to know me and my movie choosing habits, I am a found footage addict. I am totally obsessed with this horror sub-genre ever since I saw Cannibal Holocaust when I was a youngster. Fast forward a couple of decades, and found footage has exploded on the Hollywood scene (thanks to the Blair Witch Project). Found Footage movies are extremely cheap to make; All you need is a story, a script, and a couple of friends that can act. So everyone and their uncle can now crank out a mediocre movies with ease. Whether it’s true found footage, paranormal, gore, experimental or fake documentary, I am there for it. Being such a fan, I watch A LOT of bad movies, so when I come across a really great movie, I want to share.
Cast:
Gary Hinge – Eric Mencis
Tonya WIlliams-Ogden – Beverly Hinge (sister)
Errol Porter – Simon Rodgers (Roommate)
David Morales – Bill Salerno (Private eye)
Suziey Block – Gal Roberts (reporter)
Horror in the High Desert is shot like a “Dateline” documentary. The movie tells the story of Gary Hinge, an extreme hiker, who goes missing under mysterious circumstances and by making this “documentary” his family and friends hope that it will shine a light on his disappearance. The story begins when Beverly calls the police after Gary doesn’t return from his latest hiking adventure. Beverly hires a private eye named Bill to start digging for the reason behind Gary’s disappearance. It is eventually found that Gary had a hiking blog with thousands of followers and the last post was Gary planning to investigate a makeshift shack he found on a previous hike that really gave him the creeps. His followers didn’t believe him and wanted him to go find it again and film it. He does and the last half hour or so of the movie is Gary’s final video footage. Creepy AF!!!!
As I said earlier, Horror in the High Desert is made to look like a “Dateline” type show about a cold case and, if you didn’t know this was a movie, you would totally believe that the documentary is real. Funny side note, I showed this to my older sister and told her it was real; She believed me until the credits rolled.
Dutch Marich, the writer, director and editor of this film, does an amazing job giving each of his cast their own story to tell, which in turn makes you care about them in a way most movies don’t. The whole cast is amazing, but Eric Mencis really sold me as the character Gary. Dutch also cranks up the creep factor slowly throughout the 82 minute runtime. I’m not going to give any spoilers, but the last half hour of this movie is so tense, it gave me goosebumps and I had to check my closet before going to bed that night. Just a creepy little film with a heart. I LOVED this movie and I really have no complaints!!
GRADE: A+
Horror in the High Desert is available to watch through Tubi, Roku channel, and most other streaming VOD services.
