The Dustwalker (2019)

(On TV, November 2022) Unfortunately for some independent filmmakers armed with the best of intentions, sometimes the only response to 90 minutes of mayhem and violence is a middling shrug and an encouraging “okay”? I won’t try to pretend that if I, from my perch as an unknown and irrelevant film critic, somehow managed to produce a feature-length horror movie taking place in a local small town, I’d be pleased as punch. And there is some interest to The Dustwalker’s depiction of alien/zombie horror in a small rural Australian town—if only for the local colour. For what’s clearly a low-budget production, this is an acceptable film: nothing is particularly impressive, but it’s reasonably engaging if you’re willing to play along with it. The slow burn of the film’s first hour is either promising or exasperating, but the last half-hour goes a bit wild, which will either play as a good payoff or accumulating nonsense. The Dustwalker, in other words, is a film that teeters on the edge of being enough or not enough. It can’t just be dismissed as being terrible, but it doesn’t have enough to make it anywhere close to a likable low-budget effort. It generally sputters in place until the end. No amount of satisfaction for the filmmakers translates into real viewing enjoyment. So, to writer-director Sandra Sciberras: “Okay?” and better luck next time. To viewers: make sure you’re in a generous mood.