Horror Movie Review: The Dustwalker (2019)

Stealing from the likes of Slither and The Crazies while being nowhere as good as those two, The Dustwalker (also known as Alien Parasite) is an Australian horror from writer/director Sandra Sciberras.

Strange things are afoot in a small an isolated Aussie town and it’s up to Sheriff Jo (Jolene Anderson) to find out what is going on before she leaves for Sydney.

It begins with damage to the town’s communications. Followed by the discovery of what looks like a crater. Then animals are killed and mutilated before members of the town begin to go crazy.

The Dustwalker builds well, each new incident shining a light on what could possibly be going on in this town. Early scenes of the odd behaviour of townspeople has a certain level of chilliness to it. Taking its time, the movie plays it out in effective subtle style for a fair chunk of its runtime. It’s good, a little dry and handholding at times, but good.

When it is time to ramp things up, it does so quickly and abruptly leads to an alien creature reveal that can best be described as… disappointing. Now to be fair, the CGI is terrible but that’s not the problem. The problem is just how generic and bland looking it is. Mind you, it makes sense seeing how The Dustwalker’s story is a hodgepodge of other, better horror movies.

Perhaps taking itself too seriously, when the ‘alien’ creature aspect is fully introduced it seems almost out of place.

Truthfully though, it doesn’t really do anything wrong. The acting is fine, the characters relatable enough and when it’s time to ramp up the horror, it does. There are a couple of scenes that are suitably tense and the odd jump scare is effective. However, it’s just a really unremarkable film that most will watch and forget about an hour later.