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Anything weird, offbeat, or psychosexual seems to elicit the world “Lynchian” in descriptions, reviews, or marketing material. It’s become a shorthand and ultimately a reduction––more than of an influential filmmaker, a style that pushes against norms of narrative storytelling. Something that is Lynchian is also, by extension, a little beguiling and hard to pin down.

Expect people to describe Joshua Erkman’s feature debut A Desert as such. On the surface, it fits all criteria. Not only does the narrative concern itself with middle and rural America; it’s also preoccupied with an Oz-like journey and––finally doubling back on itself, in snake-like fashion––lands on an ending that can best be described as opaque, at worst nonsensical.

While the ending––a weird collage that attempts to recontextualize the story that came before it––will probably be the main talking point, it’s also the least-interesting component of Erkman’s feature.

It would be hard to believe that “A Desert” is Joshua Erkman’s feature-length debut. The kind of masterful buildup the first act of his film manages to conjure up is no short of brilliant. Taking inspiration from Hitchcock’s “Psycho,” David Lynch’s “Lost Highway,” and Tobe Hooper’s “Texas Chainsaw Massacre” with an original visual language to accompany those subtle nods, Erkman’s slow-burn horror has a sense of mystery that keeps you engrossed. However, it also slides away so much from where it’s aiming that much of it gets diluted as the narrative progresses into anti-narrative territory.

It all begins with Alex Clark’s (Kai Lennox) off-road adventure. He is an old-time photographer whose weapon of choice is an antique camera—the ones we only see now in period films. We get little to no introduction to him. Still, his communication with wife Sam (Sarah Lind...

Exclusive: Dark Sky Films has acquired all North American distribution rights to A Desert, the Tribeca and Sitges Film Festival debut from Joshua Erkman.

The neo-noir horror hybrid is due to be released in the first quarter of 2025. Pic had its world premiere at the Tribeca Festival this past summer and the film’s international premiere at Sitges Festival this past week, where it won Best Feature Film in the New Visions category.

The distribution agreement was negotiated by Greg Newman, Executive Vice President for Dark Sky Films, and Hugues Barbier, Justin Timms and Joe Yanick for Yellow Veil Pictures.

Erkman’s company Capes & Fog produced the film along with Yellow Veil Pictures. It is the latter’s first original production, marking a new phase for the genre sales company whose previous releases have included George A. Romero’s long-unreleased The Amusement Park and Gaspar Noe’s Luz AEterna...

It’s easy to get lost in the desert, a fate that befalls Joshua Erkman’s debut feature. While his protagonists eventually get dangerously close to some lurid, lethal goings-on, this self-described “neo-noir horror” leaves a vague and rudderless final impression despite its intriguing-enough buildup. “A Desert” aims for the enigmatic, supernaturally-tinged mystery of something like Lynch’s “Lost Highway,” but in the end lacks the tension and atmosphere to pull that tricky gambit off. Nonetheless, its arty sojourn through backroads-thriller terrain is likely to gain some supporters as a Tribeca Fest midnight section premiere.

An opening sequence expanded upon much later introduces the idea that what we’re watching is some sort of purgatorial film loop that traps the unwary. But like several other conceits here, it’s never developed enough to take finite shape. Still, we first meet Alex Clark (Kai Lennox) as he’s exploring a dark,...

It’s been 30 years since “Mighty Morphin Power Rangers” premiered, but Amy Jo Johnson, who played the original Pink Ranger, isn’t finished with the franchise quite yet.

After raising $250,000 in less than 24 hours via a Kickstarter campaign for the “Power Rangers: A 30th Anniversary Comic Book Celebration,” Johnson will write a brand new “Power Rangers” comic book series with publisher Boom Studios, Variety can exclusively announce.

Debuting the series next year, Johnson collaborated with her partner and director Matt Hotson to co-write it. She recalls coming up with the idea before the pandemic hit in 2020. “I was daydreaming about it and mentioned it to my boyfriend, Matt. He said, ‘Why don’t you try to write it as a comic book?'” Johnson tells Variety. “We had all the time on our hands, so we daydreamed up this entire comic book series knowing the 30th anniversary was coming.”

The...