Horror in the High Desert 3 in 275 Words or Less

Have I got any fans of director Dutch Marich's Horror in the High Desert movies in the house? There are now three films in this found-footage franchise, starting with the first in 2021, the second last year, and now this past week the third, subtitled Firewatch, has landed on Prime Video... and I am here to tell you to go make yourself a fan right now if you're not already. If you're a found-footage nut like I am these movies are whatever the movie version of catnip is -- cine-nip? Whatever, you my gist. Marich is a pro at whittling this subgenre down to its most basic form and formulas -- Marich dubbed it "horror edging" and I find that description so delightful I will use it from now on every chance I get. 

Point being he never goes for a cheap jump-scare when he can instead simply put his protagonist into a scary place and have them walk, and walk, and walk, with limited vision, peering around corners, slowly turning around -- all the things where we have been trained to expect the big "BOO!" moment. But no big "BOO!" moment comes! And Marich simply does this over and over and over until you feel like you're going to crawl right out of your skin. It's deeply effective, and I have left all three of these movies feeling full on PTSD. That is the highest of praise. There is a moment of legendary WTF-ery in here that needs to go in the WTF-ery pantheon stat. And I hope Marich will continue scarring me for life. He is really, really good at this, you guys.