Horror in the High Desert 2: Minerva
Writer/director Dutch Marich follows up his 2021 feature Horror in the High Desert — which I haven’t seen yet —with Horror in the High Desert 2: Minerva. This sequel finds police and first responders in Cyprus, Nevada, dealing with the murder of a woman named Minerva (Solveig Helene), who had lived in a trailer in a remote area while studying geology and mining. Reporter Gal Roberts (Suziey Block) tries to uncover the facts behind this mysterious case, including following a series of communications between Minerva and her friend Cathy (Sami Sallaway) in New York. The faux documentary then turns to the nighttime roadside disappearance of a woman named Ameliana (Brooke Bradshaw) and the eerie bodycam footage of EMT Luke Wells’ (David Nichols Jr.) search in the desert and through an abandoned building for her. Marich does a superb job of recreating the authentic feel of a missing persons documentary and of giving the proceedings a thick, looming air of dread throughout. Horror in the High Desert 2: Minerva trades on the looming fear of what may be lurking around any corner rather than relying on jump scares. It’s an uneasy, eerie experience, and Marich hints at much more to come in this series.
Tontine
The premise of writer/director Ezna Sand’s USA/Fiji faux documentary coproduction Tontine (AKA The Tontine Massacre; 2011) is that a tape has been created for legal purposes from edited camera footage documenting the fateful journey of a group of reality show contestants who find themselves stranded on an unknown island after a shipwreck. Rob Mariano, who was featured on both Survivor and The Amazing Race, plays the host of the ill-fated show, which promised that the contestants would have a chance to win millions of dollars by putting their life savings at stake. After Tontine’s festival premiere more than a decade ago, Unnamed Footage Festival presented this since-unseen feature at this year’s edition. The verdict? It’s an interesting effort, to be sure, and an entertaining one, also. The actors do a solid job of portraying reality show characters without going over the top and coming off as actors, for the most part, and the intrigue between characters helps build the suspense. Sands delivers some unexpected surprises in the third act and climax, and there’s no shortage of murderous mayhem once tempers flare and unbridled greed set in.
The Ucxioru Cult Tape
If director Jacopo Orlandin’s Italian short doesn’t send chills down your spine, I’m not sure what will. No graphic images of gore or violence are on display, just a shudder-inducing series of instructions bound to create disturbing images in your mind’s eye. Playing on a loop on a television station in Ark Town, Louisiana — a town established by cult leader H.P. Ark and his followers — this training tape shows how members of Ark’s flock should prepare for an upcoming event that promises Lovecraftian chaos. This is lo-fi, no-budget found-footage horror done right.
HORROR IN THE HIGH DESERT 2: MINERVA, TONTINE, and THE UXCIORU CULT TAPE screened as part of Unnamed Footage Festival, which took place in San Francisco from March 23–26, 2023.