{"id":52263,"date":"2026-03-25T09:00:46","date_gmt":"2026-03-25T13:00:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/?p=52263"},"modified":"2026-03-24T23:18:28","modified_gmt":"2026-03-25T03:18:28","slug":"a-desert-2024","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/2026\/03\/25\/a-desert-2024\/","title":{"rendered":"A Desert (2024)"},"content":{"rendered":"

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A traveling photographer meets a couple at a motel following a noise complaint, soon his plans are changed and his\u00a0connection to the couple has dire consequences.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Written by Bossi Baker and Joshua Erkman, and directed by the latter, A Desert is meant to be a psychological thriller with touches of horror. The writing here is not bad, but also not\u00a0great;\u00a0it seems to be just there. Yes, we have a story. Yes, there is some horror. But also, it feels like the\u00a0most bland\u00a0version of this story that these two could\u00a0come up with. There is so\u00a0much potential\u00a0here,\u00a0and it takes the easy road, the predictable road, and it leaves all \u201cshocking\u201d elements for a strobe-filled\u00a0sequence\u00a0near the end.\u00a0The film as a\u00a0whole, as well as its story, is likely more for the general, non-horror, indie film-watching public.\u00a0The direction here being by one of the co-writers\u00a0keeps with\u00a0the mood of the writing.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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The setting here is in the desert, a place that has the capacity to make almost any situation creepy.\u00a0The cinematography does have a few moments where the location truly shines, but it becomes same old, same\u00a0old\u00a0fairly fast. Now, mind you, the work by Jay Keitel is not\u00a0bad;\u00a0it\u00a0simply goes with the story and\u00a0doesn\u2019t\u00a0add all that much. It\u2019s, once again, not\u00a0bad\u00a0and not\u00a0great;\u00a0it just is. For a film about a photographer, one could expect some stunning cinematography, but it looks mostly basic, like so many other desert-set\u00a0films\u00a0before this one.\u00a0Visually, the film is ok when it should be so much more.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The cast here is giving performances fitting of the material. The performances are there, but something feels like\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0missing. The lead, well the photographer, is played by Kai Lennox who does give a decent range here,\u00a0showing there is something underneath, but he is not given enough screen time to really do something with it.\u00a0Playing another sort of main character is David Yow as\u00a0a\u00a0Private Investigator.\u00a0His work gives a performance that is very blase, something that actually works well for his character.\u00a0The rest of the cast gets a lot less time to make an\u00a0impression,\u00a0and the best of the bunch is without a doubt Ashley Smith as Susie Q, one half of the couple who get the story rolling.\u00a0She\u2019s\u00a0the shining star here.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Overall, the photography aspect of the lead character is not\u00a0all that important, so for those of us wanting a photography film, this\u00a0isn\u2019t\u00a0it.\u00a0The horror elements are\u00a0low;\u00a0the thriller aspect is, like the story, on the predictable side for those who watch a lot of films. Something is missing here, some element of interest, something more\u00a0involving\u00a0for the viewer.\u00a0The acting is mostly decent with one shining performance from Ashley Smith. The writing and direction are on the bland side and the cinematography fits with them. Something more is needed here to make it a rewatchable sort of film. Some will love it, but for this viewer\u00a0it\u00a0was one of those misses where the film is neither good nor\u00a0bad;\u00a0it just is, and there is no greater cinematic sin than a bland film. Especially when it had potentially to be so much more.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A traveling photographer meets a couple at a motel following a noise complaint, soon his plans are changed and his\u00a0connection to the couple has dire consequences.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[477,703,3844,3423,1087],"class_list":["post-52263","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-movie-reviews","tag-horror","tag-mystery","tag-psychological-horror","tag-psychological-thriller","tag-thriller"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52263","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52263"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52263\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":52264,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52263\/revisions\/52264"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52263"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52263"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52263"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}