Horror in the High Desert

This is an extremely well-made disappointment. I'm not at all a fan of true-crime stories so the way Horror in the High Desert is made doesn't intrigue me much, but I can't say there's any real flaw with the film and I didn't _not_ enjoy watching it.

Basically, for the majority of the runtime, it's a generic recounting of a mysterious disappearance, like what you can see in every other true crime documentary. Except that this is a mockumentary, so keeping the viewer's attention is more challenging if it feels too ordinary/real. The whole time, I had the feeling that I had already seen a documentary about this disappearance, and that's because it strongly reminded me of the real case of a YouTuber named Kenny Veach (I recommend looking it up for curiosity). The mockumentary part wasn't filmed badly, but the final impression is greatly saved by the last 20 minutes of found footage, which gives you chills. It's a shame that the first part of the film doesn't bring anything interesting and it's just a simple, yet drawn-out, bridge to the main section — Gary's last moments.

Like a procrastinating compulsive masturbator: it holds its own but waits too long to get started.

A decent found footage horror film that waits until the third act to realize it forgot to put in the horror.

Tiktok hyped it so I watched it,but smoke is bigger than the fire.

sorry but that was really boring. ist 1h fakedocu and 10mins horror. not enough for me.

People are saying the ending was terrifying but really he just seemed like some guy who wanted to be left alone.
I'm not a big fan of the genre in general so maybe that plays a part too. It was very well edited though, in that it seemed like a real documentary so I'll give it props for that but other than that I was mostly just bored

Streamed via Tubi

Saw this film being recommended on Dread Central. I personally love found footage horror and never heard of this before so I decided to check it out. It's almost no-budget but the final product is not bad at all because the most important thing it felt like a real documentary. The people being interviewed were so good at their job, they're believable and how they describe this missing person successfully draws me into their story. However, just like any other mockumentary, it dragged a lot in the middle and couldn't maintain my interest at its peak. It's obvious that it didn't have enough material to be shown other than the interviews, so it relies heavily on them. i wish they showed more found footage, it's like 90% interview and 10% found footage. The last 20 minutes was absolutely terrifying!

boring mockumentary that concludes with boring found footage. no tension, no point, no character

Another disappointing film that was over sold. The first hour is rather dull as it’s all interviews used to set the story, problem is that the story just isn’t very interesting. The finale didn't live up to the hype.

Boring and inconsistent storyline. The last 20 min are the found footage part and they are not that suspenseful. When I say inconsistent I mean that plot points contradict themselves often. "I thought it was unusual that he didn't bring his dog when he went missing. He always brings his dog." When he recounts stumbling on the creepy events the first time he didn't have his dog with him so clearly he didn't always bring his dog. [spoiler] The highly rated professional private investigator didn't know about his social media channel with over 50k followers (and never really investigated a anything). The fact that when he investigates the creepy shack he does so at night "to be subtle" and uses an infrared camera but also uses a flashlight. The killer can see in the dark, but needs a torch, no he can see in the dark again. [/spoiler] It was well produced and well acted but really slow and boring.