Horror In the High Desert is the second film that I’ve watched by writer/director Dutch Marich. I called his previous release, Reaptown, “horror with heart”, and I’d say this latest offering fits the same mold.

While I noted and enjoyed some common features between the two films (northern Nevada setting, trains, and a railway museum), Horror In the High Desert is very much its own unique story. I appreciated the film style and found it to be very effective as a viewer. This one is shot as a mockumentary that also contains some found footage.

In the beginning, we jump right in as if viewing a true-crime documentary on the disappearance of outdoor enthusiast Gary Hinge (Eric Mencis). The story is told through reports from his sister, roommate, an investigator, and a local reporter. The viewer learns about Gary’s background and his disappearance approximately three years prior through their descriptions. We’re told that this is a story kept rather quiet by news sources, and now it’s coming to light with revelations about what happened to Gary in the wilderness.

Most of the film is shot as a documentary, but it also includes snippets of Gary’s blog videos and found footage from his last moments. The cast members in this film all give believable performances, and at times I forgot that I was watching a fictional story. The combination of editing, musical score, and character dialogue all make for an authentic feel. Each of the actors did a great job portraying their emotion in relation to what happened to Gary.

It did lag a bit at times, and I found myself losing interest during the slower scenes without much action. However, the general storyline and my curiosity about what happened to Gary kept me watching. Overall, this film felt more like a character study, and the information on Gary’s past before his disappearance added to my empathy as a viewer. I found the story to have a lot of depth during the build-up to the found footage portion.

Most of the scares come all at once, but there’s a building sense of dread that is developed throughout the film. This adds to the experience and heightens the intensity in the moments when viewers discover what happened to Gary. The filmmakers did a great job with keeping the mystery throughout the story. In their interviews, a couple of the characters made others seem suspect, which planted more questions in my mind as a viewer. This kept me on my toes and I wasn’t able to guess what was coming at the end.

In a genre that has seen an influx of found footage style films in recent years, it’s easy for most to blend into the background. The unique style of found footage plus mockumentary in Horror In the High Desert makes for a memorable film that stands out among its peers. This is another film that should appeal to fans of both horror and true crime. I’d like to see more of this style in the future, and at this point I’m interested in viewing both past and future projects from writer/director Dutch Marich.

In a genre that has seen an influx of found footage style films in recent years, it’s easy for most to blend into the background. The unique style of found footage plus mockumentary in Horror In the High Desert makes for a memorable film that stands out among its peers.

7 out of 10