This evil washing o'er the plains and dunes of the country, this evil all too handy at charming its way into folks lives on account of an attractive appearance and a fine way with a mumble (Mean to say, apartheid must've seemed appealing, surely to God, for whatever reason. It talked right and walked right and served interests and eased any niggling consciences with the weight of the "rewards") eventually set upon by both white and black, banished to the terrible history it's doomed to wander.
There's a faint hope in the film, but an unsteady hope, a hope not at all wholly satisfying. Rather, an air of impending catastrophe lingers round the airways like the nightmares clot in the corners of the bedroom as Zakes Mokae sweats his way through a series of dreams and memories all smeared with his own internal devils.
Demons of the mind and demons of the body and demons of the country roundabout. All of these demons plague all of Stanley's characters in all conceivable fashions.
Half 6 in the AM the credits crossed the screen and half 6 in the following PM that imagery was still bubbling and babbling on the crest o' the brains.
Mirrors receding to infinity; houses aflame on the hillsides; men and women as wavering smoke on a landscape from here to forever.
Trivial and insignificant. Maybe that's the point? However terrifying the Dust Devil's spree may be, Namibia has enough real horrors to cope with, thank you please.
Whatever the case, what it all amounts to, as the lass surely hollered, is the best British horror film since Hellraiser, and it took ten years for anything to arrive from yonder isle that might be fit to stand in its kaleidoscopic shadows.
I'll tell her this if I ever meet her again, although I doubt I ever will unless maybe one time I have to review Dracula - AD 1972.
Dust Devil is bewitching and haunting and beguiling and lyrical, the cinematography is sublime, the soundtrack is incredible…
Aye. It's nice to know Richard Stanley finally got to finish it. It's nice to see that it's been treated with such respect and love by the folks at Subversive Cinema. And it's nicer again that it all turned out to be worth the bother.
Thanks, folks.
Article comments
1 - Iloz Zoc
Okay, you sold me on it! Will I get the girl, too, if I watch it? Hope, hope, hope.
2 - Duke De Mondo
Iloz Zoc, thanks for the comment, and i'm altogether certain you'll find this particularly bizarre wonder all the pleasing in the world.
As to the girl, i can only hope that works out for you. Maybe they'll release an even more spectacular box-set with The Girl alongside the comic book and the soundtrack and what have you.
...surely the special edition of Boxing Helena could at least entertain such a notion. it's so perfect!...
3 - Lisa McKay
Congratulations -- this review has been chosen as an Editor's Pick this week!