The Dustwalker

One of the memories i have from my childhood, was the first time i got to see the 1978 sci fi horror film Invasion Of The Body Snatchers. I remember that my father had recorded this film from TV, on our VHS player, somewhere around 1987. What made this film unique, was that this film showed how an alien lifeform duplicate humans. The transformations look really effective ( considering this film was made in the late 70´s ) and the screaming duplicated humans is very creepy. This film is based on the novel The Body Snatchers by author Jack Finney. I have not read this novel, but i have to say that this film adaptation manage to bring something different to the sci fi horror genre. Another important detail is the great cast that this film have, with legendary actors such as Donald Sutherland, Jeff Goldblum, Brooke Adams, and Leonard Nimoy. I actually picked this film up on Blu Ray last year, from the Arrow Video catalogue. Here you have some really interesting special features, where especially In the year of 1993, Hollywood decided that it was time to do a more modern adaptation of  the novel The Body Snatchers, and released the film Body Snatchers. To be honest, this film is not horrible. But if you compare to the 1978 film, this modern remake can not capture the same creepy feeling that Invasion Of The Body Snatchers did. Since then we had a numbers of sci fi horror films that have tried to copy the same concept, and in 1998 director Robert Rodriguez actually managed to do it in a positive way with his film The Faculty. This is a clever teenage sci fi horror film, that use pretty much the same concept of Invasion Of The Body Snatchers, with some elements from The Thing as well. Worth checking out if you love the films of director Robert Rodriguez, and if you are a fan of the films i mentioned earlier. When you think of Australia, what comes to your mind first ? Alligators, beer, lots of sun and kangaroos ? I believe we all have our own view on Australia, because there is so many beautiful things to see and experience there. What if a unique bug infected humans to become strange, what would you do ? I got a chance to sit down and see The Dustwalker, an Australian sci fi horror film that have an interesting plot. Is this the best sci fi horror film in quite some time, or is this a typical strait to DVD release you will not remember ?

Jo Sharp ( Jolene Anderson ) is the law in an isolated Autralian town. When a mysterious object crashes in the desert, that came from space, it seems to have a unkown bug. Local geoloist Angela ( Cassandra Magrath ) investigate the crash site, but have no clue what this could be. When locals suddenly become infected by this bug, Jo realise that the whole town is in danger.

It is such a shame that The Dustwalker fails with some very important details, because i do like the concept of this film and the location. First of all we have the CGI problems. When the infected humans show their angry face, it looks pretty silly. I can accept bad CGI in some cases, when you know you should not expect anything else. But in the case of this film, it could have been better, and would probably make these infected humans feel more creepy. As they attack in this film, it looks more like ordinary humans with uninspired CGI effects. If you wanted these infected people to be scary, you need to make them look more effective. There is some kind of monster as well, that shows up later in this film, but not even that monster feels well made. Another problem that i feel about The Dustwalker, is that this is not a sci fi horror film that will please fans of films such as Invasion Of The Body Snatchers or the cult classic The Thing. Those films may be around 40 years older, but still to this day is much better made, and have a lot more to offer from the sci fi horror catalogue than The Dustwalker. Let´s at least get into something positive, and that is actress Jolene Anderson is actually good as the character Joanne Sharp. She actually bring something positive to the plot, with her fearless character. Jolene clearly went into her role with passion, and if only this movie could have had her passion, i think we would have had something special to enjoy. The Australian landscape is actually a great location for a film like this, so it was a good choice to let this story be told in a small desert town. I do believe that director Sandra Sciberras have some interesting ideas behind this film, but for some reason she choose to skip some very important details that would have helped The Dustwalker become a more interesting sci fi horror film. If you are a fan of this genre, i suggest you watch John Carpenter´s The Thing instead, and i guarantee you will be more pleased.

Rating: DD