My ill-advised endeavor to watch the top 200 horror movies of all time, plus 100 additions, in order to determine a definitive (read: completely subjective) Top 100 continues.

Long before making 2019’s most surprising horror film, a loose adaptation of Lovecraft’s Color Out of Space starring Nicolas Cage, disgraced filmmaker Richard Stanley wrote and directed this divisive story of a woman (Chelsea Field) on the run from an abusive husband and of the supernatural force in the guise of a handsome drifter, the titular Dust Devil (Robert John Burke, Thinner) who stalks her across the drought-stricken borderland between Namibia and South Africa in the days after the 24-year-long South African Border War/Namibian War of Independence, the effects of which serve as a backdrop, giving the film a disconsolate, desperate feel.

Dust Devil is a moody, languid film that somehow manages to combine the sensual dream logic of a giallo with the imagery and themes of a Leone western. That is, IF you watch the director’s cut, or The Final Cut as it’s called, and not the scorching mess that was released theatrically. The 20-minute shorter theatrical cut is barely coherent, having cut both important exposition and mood-setting. The problem here is that, from what I can gather, no streamer offers the superior Final Cut, only the 1 hr 27 minute version butchered from Stanley’s original vision by the studio, so in order to watch the film as it was intended you have to buy the long out-of-print 2006 special edition DVD release from Subversive Cinema. Which, if you’re a cult film enthusiast, is probably worth the effort, but a casual viewer of horror films most likely doesn’t need to go out of their way. Especially given the likelihood that Stanley is an (alleged, unproven) abuser, your time might be better spent elsewhere. For what it’s worth, I liked it quite a bit, and it’s the kind of film that sticks with you long after the credits roll. Your decision is your own.