Desert of Death

It must have been an utter lack of any other things to do that evening... otherwise, how did I manage to watch this through the end? The movie is nothing. Really, it's not even bad, or disgusting. It's just nothingness. No point to start listing here what exactly was so poor - script, acting, cast or directorship?.. everything was below any possible critic. Director's fantasy didn't even go as far as to award its "evil power" with a voice at least somehow different than that of thousands of other scary creatures in thousands of other scary movies...

the only fun thing to see about this movie is 6.0 rating here. Funny, isn't it?.. To cut my view short - don't go my path and don't watch this movie if your time has any value to you whatsoever...

While the script we turned in was far from an award winner, it was more gore / T&A filled. We had a fun sub-plot where two of the girls, who happened to be lesbians, were trying to lure one of the guys into fathering a kid... who doesn't like a gory horror film with hot lesbians? Also, the whole idea of why the Golem (which was the original title) was created and hunting down the twenty-somethings, was greed-based. This had nothing to do with negative thoughts... it was all about how the kids got greedy and tried screwing each other out of their cuts of the money... and of course, one girl doesn't want the money... she survives... what happened once they got a hold of our script is simply bizarre... somehow a hard R rated script got turned into a PG religious horror... that's just messed up!

There are b movies, and there are b movies. This has to be one of the most pointless exercises in "let's make a movie in the desert with some cute girls and buff boys" that anyone ever had. The back projection for scenes where all seven of the main players are crammed into the hummer looks like something out of 1940s Hollywood! The acting is mostly pretty dire, one or two of the players seem to be reading cue cards! The story, such as it is, regards a group of kids (of wildly differing ages!)heading out into the Utah (?) desert for fun, finding a bag stuffed with money that a dead robber no longer needs, and then being pursued by the same "golem" or "sand devil" that killed the original band of thieves. This is not even remotely frightening, the CGI of the creature is about as scary as Cookie Monster devouring a plateful of his favourite snack food. The screw-ups are hilarious, and well-worth watching out for. A girl's tank-top changes colour from bright green to sky blue between her death at the hands of the demon to the next scene where her body is found. In another scene, a car drives past the back of the hummer, when they are supposed to be stranded in the middle of nowhere. After three days in the desert, the girls still have perfect mascara and not a hair out of place.

Ironically, the central message, that negative thoughts and feelings will attract the demon; that negativity breeds on itself could have been a good basis for an interesting story. The end is so convoluted and confused. My wife, who had the misfortune to sit through this dreary effort with me said: "Was that supposed to be scary?" Sadly, the producers here got a touch too much sun,perhaps, and the whole thing ended up pretty well half-baked. Only watch this if you are planning to do so drunk or high on something, and please, don't expect to be frightened.