Dust Devil is a 1993 horror film written and directed by Richard Stanley. The film was described as being like "Tarkovsky on acid" by Steve Beard of The Face.
Plot
Set largely in the desert in Namibia and South Africa, it concerns a demon which possesses human beings. The film has three interlocking plots, about an abused wife fleeing her husband, her husband's search for her, and the search of a guilt-ridden, elderly black police officer for the perpetrator of a gruesome ritual murder. The plots are woven together in what the writer-director has described as a "spiralling" structure, and come together at the end for an apocalyptic finale.
Availability
In December 1991, Stanley turned in a 120-minute version of the film, which was subsequently trimmed down to 110. Stanley hoped this version would become the so-called 'European cut', as the US distributor Miramax had the right to re-edit the film for their own market. However, in the spring 1992 the British production company Palace Pictures test-screened a 95-minute cut in Wimbledon, and went bankrupt soon after. The post-production of the European version was shut down and Stanley lost control of the film.
Meanwhile Miramax exercised their right for a new edit without the director's involvement. The resulting cut, running at 87 minutes, was released in the U.S. on VHS and laserdisc, both in pan and scan. This version was also released in Italy and France, under the respective titles Demoniaca and Le Souffle du Démon. According to Stanley, an even shorter US version was released, with a running time of 68 minutes.
In 1993, Stanley acquired the Miramax print as well as the excised material and self-financed a cut which would resemble his original version. This version, suitably dubbed as The Final Cut, ran at 105 minutes, and is said to be only one sharing most of the scenes and the general storyline with the original cut. It was released on video in the UK by PolyGram, with the co-investor Channel Four airing it in their network on occasion. Stanley has also personally presented it in various film festivals.
The state of things has improved greatly since then, as the German publisher Laser Paradise have released their Dust Devil DVD. It features the Final Cut of the film, basing on the same master as the British VHS. Recently, Optimum Releasing has released a more sophisticated DVD version of the film, basing it on a newer digital master and including a commentary track by the director.
Subversive Cinema has released a special edition DVD in North America. Alongside the Final Cut, the release features a restored workprint of the original director's cut, running at 114 minutes. Stanley recently has recorded commentaries and interviews not only for the film, but also for three rarely seen documentary films he has directed over the last decade and a half, Voice of the Moon, The Secret Glory and The White Darkness. [1] [2]
Cast
- John Matshikiza - Joe Niemand
- Robert John Burke - Dust Devil (as Robert Burke)
- Terri Norton - Saarke Haarhoff
- Chelsea Field - Wendy Robinson
- Rufus Swart - Mark Robinson
- William Hootkins - Capt. Beyman
- Zakes Mokae - Ben Mukurob
- Russell Copley - Cpl. Dutoit
- Andre Odendaal - Cpl. Bates
- Luke Cornell - Soldier 1
- Philip Henn - Soldier 2
- Robert Stevenson - Rifle Boy
- Peter Hallr - Marist Monk
- Stephen Earnhart - Camper Driver
- Marianne Sägebrecht - Dr. Leidzinger
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All we are is Dust in the Wind …
"Dust Devil is one of the only 90's horror classics!" "The special
Coventry from the Draconian Swamp of Unholy Souls - 29 March 2009edition DVD from Subversive Cinema is finally a release worthy of this
film". "If you haven't seen Dust Devil yet, you're in for a brilliant
and refreshing horror surprise". Okay, these are some of the ultimately
praising comments I encountered on "Dust Devil" and apparently a lot of
people are astonished if you claim you're a horror fanatic and yet
haven't seen this film. Now, after borrowing the deluxe DVD-edition
from a friend and finally having seen the film, all I can say is … Is
that it?!? This is the supposedly brilliant and original 90's classic
that I desperately had to watch in order to keep calling myself a
horror buff? I mean, it's a respectable and ambitious film and
definitely benefices from a handful of unique elements, but I honestly
expected more in terms of plot originality and production values. "Dust
Devil" boosts an incredibly rudimentary and hugely derivative plot, but
writer/director Richard Stanley ("Hardware") effectively camouflages
this through sensationally breath-taking filming locations, ultimately
ominous sound effects & music and some extremely blatant gore effects.
Filmed in one of the most beautiful regions of the world – the South
African/Namibian deserts, "Dust Devil" introduces a drifting stranger
who gets picked up by a beautiful woman and brought back to an isolated
guest house for a night of passionate sex. However, the drifter is an
ancient demoniacal African shape-shifter feeding on the despair of
depressed people and thus viciously butchers the woman and sets her
house on fire before hitching onwards. Next victim is the insecure
South African housewife Wendy Robinson, who finally dared to leave her
dominant husband and now journeys through the desert on her way to the
sea. Meanwhile, the fatigue police officer Ben Mukurob hasn't got the
slightest trace to follow and enlists the help of a spiritual cinema
projector to learn more about the unusual serial killer. Basically,
"Dust Devil" is simply a standard horror story about a traveling serial
killer and all the supernatural gibberish and typically African talk
about magic are totally irrelevant. The film is amazingly atmospheric
and often downright scary, but only thanks to the godforsaken and
desolate locations and nightmarish music, because all the rest is
disappointingly amateurish. The narration, for example, is completely
uninformative and quite annoying. Stanley's subtly processed lectures
on South African politics feel somewhat obtrusive whereas the actually
relevant dialogs are extremely weak. Worst of all, however, are the
irredeemably awful acting performances from the ensemble cast. I
personally never liked Robert John Burke but definitely expected a
better and more vivid job from Chelsea Field.
It Really "Blows" That DUST DEVIL Is Completed, But Not "Finished"…
So you know how I feel about movies I've never even heard of. When I
Christopher T. Chase (cchase@onebox.com) from Arlington, VA. - 4 December 2008saw that DUST DEVIL: THE FINAL CUT had not one or two, but FIVE discs
in the set, I was really skeptical. The ONLY reason why I was willing
to cut it any slack was because of the director, Richard Stanley. I do
remember seeing his sci-fi/horror/action cult favorite, HARDWARE, back
in the good old days of VHS, and it kicked MAJOR butt-cheeks back then.Here's the deal: apparently, DUST DEVIL went through the usual
headaches and hardships during filming, Bottom line: a finished
'director's cut' of this movie as of now, does not exist. What Stanley
and his co-conspirators had to do is piece together a rough version,
using additional scenes pulled out of a work print. It's very similar
to what had to be done when a "completed" cut of THE WICKER MAN was
reconstructed.The result is an erratic, but visually stunning piece of work, but it
goes pretty deep into the metaphysical and supernatural aspects of
native folklore in the country where it's set…Africa, particularly
South Africa. Translation: people in this movie spend a lot of time
talking, including the narrator. Sure, lots of stuff happens, but
there's also a lot of time in between those events, so if you don't
feel like putting up with a lot of dialogue, you might want to save
this film for another time.Robert John Burke (the ROBOCOP series, OZ and RESCUE ME) plays the
title character, who is also called "The Shapeshifter." If he seems
very familiar to you, he should be. He's a figure that runs through a
lot of the mythologies of different cultures and has been used to
represent both Good and/or Evil in many popular books and movies. But make no mistake about it - this 'Dust Devil' ain't here to help
anybody but himself. He's a demon trapped in our world in human form,
feeding off the souls of the lost and the lonely who have given up on
everything but life itself, gathering strength until…well, as far as
I could tell, it was never all that clear WHAT he was trying to do -
return to his shadow world, or eventually take over ours. Anyway, Burke
plays the role really well, and he's believable as a charismatic force
of evil who can convince his victims to stick out their necks while he
pulls out his shiny axe…or knife, in this case. As it happens, there are two souls on a collision course with Mr. DD: a
police detective, Ben Mukurob (THE SERPENT AND THE RAINBOW'S Zakes
Mokae) whose wife left him after the tragic death of their child, and a
woman named Wendy Robinson, (Chelsea Field of PRISON and THE LAST BOY
SCOUT), who has just left her clingy husband, Mark, (Rufus Swart),
after he finds out she's been having an affair.With his job the only thing he has left to look forward to, Ben dives
into the investigation of the murder of the Dust Devil's latest victim
with a vengeance. Adding an extra layer of substance to the story are
indicators that the story takes place not long after the fall of
apartheid, but the residual effects can still be seen in Ben's grudging
relationship with the uniformed officers he supervises, and the
friendship he has with his immediate superior, Captain Beyman (William
Hootkins, everybody's favorite "red shirt" from HARDWARE and a little
flick called STAR WARS: A NEW HOPE). When symbols at the crime scene indicate that the murder has undertones
of ritualistic sacrifice and black magic, Mukurob consults a shaman he
knows named Joe Niemand (John Matshikiza), who warns him that forces
are at work that he shouldn't be screwing with…unless he's ready to
go all the way. Meanwhile, Wendy runs into a mysterious, Western-garbed stranger
hitching rides. She picks him up, and at first, she's attracted to the
handsome and unusual "dude from Texas." Until some freaky stuff happens
that indicates he's not quite who she thinks - or is that hopes? - he
is.There comes a point where he reappears to her, when you figure that a)
this Wendy chick is one screwed-up piece of work, or b) this guy really
does have a power to attract his victims beyond all reason. Because
most women I know at this point (and you'll know it when it comes)
wouldn't care if this guy was Brad Pitt - they'd be beatin' feet out of
there faster than Usain Bolt going for a one-minute mile.Wendy's husband Mark goes looking for her, and he runs into some
trouble that has nothing to do with supernatural events of any kind.
But eventually, the paths of all three people will cross at some point
and all of them will encounter the Dust Devil…though not all of them
will live to tell about it.I wish I could say that including the shots from the work print does
the movie justice, but the transition between clean, sharp cuts and the
fuzzy, murky segments from the dailies doesn't allow the movie to weave
the completely seductive and creepy spell that Stanley was ultimately
after, and it makes you wonder what the finished film would've been
like if he'd been able to gain all the resources and money he needed to
give it that proper 'polish.' As is, though, it's still pretty heady
stuff. Casual fanboys sniffing out a "Triple-B" movie (Babes, Boobs and Blood)
may want to wait for the next Eli Roth extrava-GORE-za, and leave this
one on the shelf. I'm just hoping that whatever he does next, Stanley
will be given a proper budget and the leeway to see at least one more
film through to a completed AND finished version of what he envisions.
Slow, but beautiful, western horror
After leaving her abusive, purple-track-suit-wearing husband, Wendy
Anthony Pittore III (Shattered_Wake) from Los Angeles, CA - 12 August 2008(Chelsea Field) encounters a mysterious hitchhiker (Robert Burke). She
invites him along for the ride, but realizes her mistake when strange
things begin to occur after he joins her. Meanwhile, a police officer
(Zakes Mokae) asks the help of a local shaman to find the hitchhiker,
who is more than he appears to be.Review: The film was not at all what I expected. Reading the synopsis
and hearing nothing of it beforehand, I had assumed something like a
supernatural version of 'The Hitcher'. . . with that same tone to it.
While I do prefer 'The Hitcher' to this film, 'Dust Devil' does not
deserve to be entirely passed up. It's beautifully shot with a strange,
but interesting, story about the myths in the real world. It is rather
slow-moving for quite some time, but during the times it picks up, it's
rather frightening and gory. The performances are fantastic, as is the
written dialogue. My major gripe would have to be, again, with the
pace. Not so much that it's slow, but that its spikes are so high and
brutal that when it reaches its lulls, it feels boring in comparison.
However, if you're one simply for the visuals, for the landscapes, for
the cinematography. . . you will very much appreciate the beauty of the
film. Who knows. . . it might've been great in one of the sliced-up
editions. But the 'final cut' edition I viewed was, simply, just good.Final verdict: 7.25/10.
Dust Devil
South Africa has never been known as a Mecca of horror films, but "Dust
Count_Elvis from the castle of freaks, Tryansalabamia - 8 June 2008Devil" is one of the very best horror films from the 1990's period.
It's about a woman named Wendy who has just left her husband Mark. She
begins driving aimlessly through the South African desert. She picks up
a mysterious stranger, who woos her as soon as he steps into the car.
As it turns out though the stranger is the Dust Devil, a shape changing
killer from South African legend."Dust Devil" rocks. It's a horror film and a Western at the same time
and succeeds at both. The horror elements are very well refined. This
movie has a great deal of suspense and the Dust Devil is one hell of a
great killer. As far as the Western elements go, this movie has a great
isolated feel that in turn helps out the horror elements tremendously.
The scenery looks very harsh and unwelcoming, in other words perfect
for a movie like this. The acting is also very good and I was quite
impressed with the well written script. "Dust Devil" is a thoroughly
cool film. Unfortunately this film was taken from its director Richard
Stanley and chopped up by the studio without his permission. The
original footage has since been restored on DVD, but the only footage
left of the cut scenes were on VHS, creating a noticeable difference in
the quality of the deleted scenes. Regardless of unneeded studio
interference however, "Dust Devil" is still a cool little film well
worth seeing.
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