DUST DEVIL (1992)

A demonic serial killer (Burke) is in South Africa, collecting souls and preying on the weak. Mokae plays a Black South African detective investigating the murders, and Field plays a depressed housewife escaping a violent marriage, who drives right into the middle of things, specifically to the dead-end town of Bethany.

Before seeing Richard Stanley's Director's Cut of Dust Devil I had barely heard of it or any other Stanley film. I have never really enjoyed horror films set in Africa nor genre films in the pretentious style of Nicolas Roeg or Ken Russell. Lo and behold, this is the second DVD sent to me to review here that has absolutely floored me (After The Story of Ricky). Dust Devil is unlike any other serial killer film I have ever seen and perhaps will ever see. I suggest you best forget any flaws and just hang on tight, it's gonna be a surreal ride.
This is a visual and aural cinematic delight, especially if you like atmospheric and well-shot (great colour scheme!) horror films, with the location itself somewhat unusual and foreboding. This film oozes atmosphere right from the word go, with nary a word of dialogue in the opening ten minutes, which are the tensest and most atmospheric I've seen in quite a while. It's even a little scary, not something I can say about a lot of horror films, actually. I'm not much of a fan of flashy dream sequences or symbolism in film, especially when heavy-handed, but in Dust Devil it all fits in. My favourite moment would have to involve Burke's character standing up in front of some bull horns set against a wall, which with the reddish cinematography makes Burke look like Tim Curry in Legend. A nightmare sequence where Mokae has his heart ripped out was also rather choice. And, tell me, who doesn't enjoy a good shotgun blast to the head every now and then? There's an outstanding, moody music score too, by Simon Boswell.

In regards to characters and casting, all three lead actors (B-grade at best) and their characters are somewhat unique. Mokae, who must be contractually obligated to appear in every African-themed film since the 1980s, makes for a most unusual hero. He's a mixture of stoic, tortured (still grieving over his dead child and absent wife), laconic, skeptical, and quietly disillusioned with all that goes on around him. And he's a black man in an authority position, in a country that does not respect him. Burke (Robocop 3) makes for a complex and strange villainous character, in a superlative performance. He's a mixture of blue-eyed American hunk, The Man With No Name (or the duster-wearing characters in Leone's masterpiece Once Upon a Time in the West), Rutger Hauer's Hitcher, and perhaps Satan himself (It's occasionally reminiscent of Angel Heart, but arguably better than that film). Burke shows here how fine he can be if given the chance (sadly, he mostly hasn't been). The underrated Field (who was apparently forced onto the film, neither director nor actress were initially happy about it) is also impressive as a rather sad woman whom you don't tend to find in this genre. Together they make a wonderfully offbeat trio, and make the film perhaps more emotional than one might expect.
The film's flaws range from minor (I've never been a fan of juxtaposing scenes of violence with a sex scene, it's kind of like having root canal whilst you're pleasuring yourself to Vampyros Lesbos, if you ask me), to somewhat larger problems such as predictability. Once the characters are set up, one just waits until they all come together as we know they will. Overall, though, I still think this is a wonderfully bizarre, atmospheric variation on the serial killer film that deserves to be seen, and fans will want to embrace this DVD treatment.

For this DVD, director Stanley contributes an informative feature-length audio commentary with few (if any) pauses. Slightly bitter at his film's original fate, Stanley talks about his homeland, and also the struggle to get the film made (South Africa apparently doesn't like films featuring Satan), and its original fate at the hands of Miramax. The thing Stanley seems most bitter about also happens to be one of my own pet peeves, the dreaded "no nudity clause" especially in regards to Field (Though if you look close.) Just say no to the 'No Nudity Clause', people! It's evil.. OK, I'm off the soapbox now. Also included on the DVD are some useless deleted scenes, and trailers for Switchblade Romance (aka Haute Tension), the Aussie cult hit Wolf Creek, and The Long Weekend (an Aussie pic from yesteryear that looks awful).