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Director Dutch Marich’s Horror in the High Desert trilogy serves as a reminder that the found footage genre is not dead and if handled correctly can overcome fatigue within the genre. It’s not like Marich is re-inventing the category, but he knows how to make it believable and most importantly, scary.
He uses the documentary style which consists of interviews, and media coverage. What’s great about his movies is that the actors aren’t canned and the dialogue flows naturally. It’s an artform that, if unperfected, can make or break a found footage film, taking the viewer out of their suspension of disbelief, thereby ruining the illusion.
Conversely, that magic was used impeccably in 1999’s Blair Witch Project and 2007’s Paranormal Activity. The actors in those films were given prompts as to what their motivations were in the scene and the rest was up to them. Marich has perfected this technique and each movie in this series feels authentic.
The first movie is especially unsettling. It takes place in 2017, and, “follows an experienced outdoor enthusiast who vanishes into the Nevada wilderness. For the first time, friends and loved ones recall the events leading up to his disappearance and share the grisly evidence that revealed his horrifying fate.”
We won’t go any further into the details because part of what makes found-footage movies fun is the unexpected directions they take. This trilogy is compelling enough and becomes creepier in each sequel. The good news is that the first two are now available for free on Tubi (with ads). The third is rentable wherever you buy your digital content.
Below are the trailers for all three movies followed by a brief synopsis.
In July 2017, an experienced outdoor enthusiast vanished in Northern Nevada while on an outdoor excursion. After an extensive search, he was never located. On the three-year anniversary of his disappearance, friends and loved ones recall the events leading up to his vanishing, and for the first time, speak about the horrifying conclusion of his fate.
In 2018 a string of tragedies unfolded in Northeastern Nevada. A woman was found dead and another would vanish along the same stretch of remote highway. Could these events be linked to the 2017 disappearance of outdoorsman Gary Hinge?
As a wildfire bears down on the opposite side of the state, Oscar Mendoza, armed with a secret, takes advantage of the distraction and journeys to Northeastern Nevada in search of missing outdoorsman Gary Hinge’s last known whereabouts.