Official synopsis: A past his prime photographer (Kai Lennox as Alex Clark) heads out on a road trip across the American Southwest to recapture the magic and success of his previous work. Instead, he finds himself thrust into the dark and chaotic underbelly of America and unwittingly drags his wife (Sarah Lind as Sam Clark) and a shady private detective (David Yow as Harold Paladino) down into this nightmare world with him. A DESERT is a sun-bleached neo-noir horror film about time, the chaos of our world, and the relevance of images in the cultural desert we are faced with today.
I have been anxiously awaiting A Desert since its highly successful film festival run, and I’m thrilled to report that my wait for director Joshua Erkman’s fantastic feature debut was well worth it. Blending shades of Lynchian neo-noir with jaw-dropping horror, the film boasts taut direction and excellent performances.
Alex Clark makes the mistake of trying to relive his past — a lesson that some of the cautionary tales from the original The Twilight Zone warned of many decades ago. Nostalgia is a strong intoxicant, especially when enough time has passed that only “the good things” are remembered. As in those episodes and countless horror films before, Alex finds out that things have changed for the horrifically worst.
Besides the top-notch performances from Lennox, Lind, and Yow, Zachary Ray Sherman gives a bravura turn as Renny, a character who we first meet after a loud argument with a woman he claims is his sister (Ashley B. Smith as Susie Q, also solid in her portrayal of a local prostitute) in their motel room next door to Alex’s room. From the moment viewers set eyes on Renny, we know something dangerous is in the offing.
What transpires is an increasingly tense and chilling desert-set neo noir reminiscent of David Lynch’s dives into the dark, surreal explorations of small-town Americana, although Erkman, working from a screenplay that he cowrote with Bossi Baker, invests A Desert with its own original flavor. The third act delivers unnerving horror set pieces that are not easy to shake off. Cinematographer Jay Keitel marvelously captures the beauty of desert landscapes, the starkness of abandoned buildings, and the ugly, inevitable brutality that unfolds.
A Desert is truly unlike any other horror films you are likely to see this year. It has cemented discomfiting images in my mind, as well as a spot on my list of the top 10 horror films of 2025.
Dark Sky Film Presents A Desert, a Yellow Veil Pictures Original Production, in theaters from May 2, 2025.
