Wonderful character development!

Dreadfully Boring

Not sure how, but this is easily one of the best movies all summer. Multiple levels of funny, never takes itself seriously, super colorful, and creative.

Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

Never before have I seen a director's cut that's made so much of a difference to my perceptions of a movie. My first viewing of "Dust Devil" was the Wienstein cut, with about half an hour amputated for American audiences. My first impression was of a dismal boring serial killer thriller with supernatural overtones in a novel setting, featuring lots of half baked characters, and a serious shortage of suspense, horror, or general interest. What was cut from the film basically seems to be anything that would have been remotely interesting. The narration is subtracted, there is less music, less repeated shots of the moon, sky, and desert landscape, less peripheral views of the political and social context of the time and town, less time spent with the characters, a few dream sequences gone entirely, and a great sequence towards the end that takes place in a makeshift movie theater and recalls Ingmar Bergman's "Persona"(where for a brief momentum the movie itself falls out of joint), all get left on the chopping block in the US release.My first impression was terrible, but my second viewing of the longer cut was like seeing the film with fresh eyes. Dust Devil is the story of an ancient demon who doesn't so much possess his host as it does become trapped inside of them. The demon only seeks to break out of the material world, an act he can only achieve through ritual murder. In his own words, "there is no good or evil, only spirit and matter. You are full of light, and I only have to make a small incision to let the light out.I should have done this days ago, but I get lonely, forgive me I wont keep you waiting any longer".The demon can only kill the hopeless; those who truly have nothing and are either suicidal or have given up on life completely. He is attracted to a town called Bethany in the Namibian desert in south-west Africa, that is slowly collapsing on itself, to the point where even the sheriff has been paid to leave. The town is literally drying up, and the dust is as much an ecological terror as the demon that feeds on the he despair and hopelessness breeding in the town. The demon played by Robert John Burke (who was also the gruff Nordic mythological beast in the underrated "No Such Thing".) however is not the main feature of the movie. Dressed in his Sergio Leone cowboy trench coat and hat as a classic man with no name, "a violent wind which blows from nowhere"(though Stanley's final cut, even gives him a brief scene of pathos). The plot involves a South African white woman named Linda (Chelsea Field) who has just left her husband in Johannesburg. We learn she was once a student radical but has lost her passion to a lifeless marriage, and is driving aimlessly towards "the sea" or towards suicide, whichever comes first. Linda picks up Burke, the nameless handsome hitchhiker, or imagines she does anyway (reality around Burke seems to collapse at times), who has just finished off two previous victims near Bethany. The murders call for investigation, and the sheriff contacts Ben (Zakes Mokae) an old African detective who lost his son (and had subsequently divorced from his wife), in some undisclosed "violence along the border". He drives through the desert listening to his ex wife's "whale song" recordings she forgot to take with her 15 years ago (there is a continuous juxtaposition of ideas and sounds of the sea with the barren desert). The two murders (there are only four in the film, and 3 depicted on screen), are ritual in nature, and so Ben enlists the help of my favorite character for narcissistic reasons, Joe the one eyed town shaman and projectionist at the drive in who narrates the film, and was scheduled to show "Bird With A Crystal Plumage" and "Legend Of The 7 Golden Vampires" as double feature, before the trouble begins. He tells Ben that in order to stop the killings he will need to "stop thinking like a white man, and start thinking like a man" in order to open himself up to the rituals needed to trick and capture the evil spirit. Meanwhile Linda's husband is trying to track her down, failing at every turn, and only getting in the way of everything he touches as a bumbling and arrogant white male South African (not unlike Wikus from District 9, but sans redemption). What makes Dust Devil worth watching is the Stanley's milking the landscape and the sky for all it's shamanic glory (so we may better understand the demon as a force of nature itself), and Burke's alternately charming, cold, sensitive, or demonic performances. Ben and Linda are the main characters and much of the movie is devoted to bringing them together and showing their mutual alienation and despair and how Ben's dedication to the murder case and Linda's picking up Burke the hitcher seem to give them both new sensations of purpose and meaning. The ecological blight of the dust, the economic famine of the town, and the psychological desperation of the characters and even Burke's desire to escape the material plane, are layered over (and form a commentary on) each other. The few moments which recall most directly a horror movie come few and far between the scenes of poetic narration, police procedural, and eye fulls of the Namibian desert and the dust devils(mini tornadoes) which dot it's landscape. Do not watch this unless you can get the Final Cut, its the only one worth seeing.

Part horror, part serial killer thriller, part supernatural Western, and featuring some unforgettable surrealist sequences, "Dust Devil" is one of the most distinctive and under-appreciated horror films there are, and as good as its original cut was, Richard Stanley's final cut improves drastically on it, making "Dust Devil" a must see film.The technical aspects of "Dust Devil", Simon Boswell's haunting score, the beautiful look of the film, and the excellent work with the sound, and Stanely's creative and intelligent direction make this film one of the most aesthetically pleasing of the early nineties. The film's screenplay may not be as good, but outside of a few serious faults it's also very good. I can't pick on the acting either, some of which is excellent, the rest of which is serviceable.Any film with a concept as original and intriguing as "Dust Devil" and one that is executed this well deserves to be seen, and now that the final cut has been released and can be relatively easily found, there's no excuse not to.8.5/10

DD is not a run-of-the-mill horror film, and that certainly can't be a bad thing. A serial-killer premise, but fantasy-based i.e. not your typical "Copycat" type of garbage. When you make your serial-killer a demon, then you have all the excuses you need to make him near-invincible - unlike the plethora of modern-day horror thrillers in which the very human killer seems to have God-like powers. Set in Namibia, which helps give the film a more-or-less unique look and feel. The movie does tend to move very slowly in the first hour, but the decent soundtrack and the visuals mostly make up for it. At times I couldn't get past the funny South African accents.Just one noteworthy objection: why didn't they cast the first female victim as the star of the movie and killed off "Wendy" at the beginning instead? The former is much prettier...I didn't quite buy the casting of Marianne Sagebrecht as a pathologist. She is your classic Putzfrau or fat housewife.

A mesmerizing look into African lore and ghost stories, Richard Stanley's Dust Devil is an ingeniously crafted piece of cinematic marvel. A Sergio Leone western imbued with supernatural horror and surrealism it is a self-destructive journey filled with sorrow and regret.Loosely based around the stories of a Namibian serial killer "Dust Devil" is the supernatural tale of a creature, ancient as the earth itself. He takes many forms, wandering throughout the deserts, searching not for salvation but for Death. He is attracted to those (if only subconsciously) wishing, praying for their own demise. Hungry for souls he can only offer his prey a less painful death. The true gruesomeness comes afterwards, the flesh is torn, the body severed, some parts eaten, the blood is drained and used for what it seems a ritual, the whole act after the death is a ritual. That thing caring the disguise of a man (John Robert Byrke), that Dust Devil as the people of the Namib had named him, takes a finger from his victim as a souvenir and leaves, searching for the next one. On his trail is a broken-down police detective tortured by his own inner demons. He chases the Dust Devil refusing to believe that maybe he is dealing with something supernatural. A woman, runs away from her husband, she travels past the SAR border and into Namibia. The dying town of Bethany is where she first crosses paths with the creature. There will be some romance, beliefs will be put to the test, there will be regret and there will be blood."Dust Devil" has this gloomy mystical atmosphere like a "High Plains Drifter" or a "Once Upon A Time in The West", whichever you prefer. The way the story is told, through small hints rather than a complete explanation about everything, it leaves room for interpretation. The way the tension builds up from the opening introduction to the Dust Devil legend and with every bit of information we learn about him after wards until the culmination. There isn't an explosion, and the tension doesn't leave after the credits start rolling, it stays with you for sometime.Surreal imagery combined with what looks like an Italian western. Marvelously shot. The scenery combined with the Leone-sque camera-work, the least to say is that it's beautiful. The lifeless desert becomes a character of its own, brought to life thanks to Richard Stanley's stylistic choices. Simon Boswell's grim score is a perfect match to the movie's feel, endless torment for those involved in the plot.Stanley's choice for a small cast is a good one, not just for financial concerns. The trio leading characters are fleshed out, whether likable or not, when the final confrontation comes you know you've learned everything you need to learn about them. The acting is sort of a mish mash, there some things that could've been done better I suppose but still overall pretty good stuff."Dust Devil" is what "High Plains Drifter" would have been had Eastwood pumped up the supernatural factor. It's a horror movie with superb atmosphere and griping plot, shot brilliantly. A forgotten masterpiece, Richard Stanley crafts artistic terror equal to some of the greatest classics in the horror genre.