Desert Fiends Blu-ray Review
“Desert Fiends” is more of the same from Shawn C. Phillips.
Written by Shawn C. Phillips and his brother Ethan Phillips, “Desert Fiends” is essentially a horror-comedy version of “The Hills Have Eyes.” The narrative is a bit all over the place, but the film contains storylines involving Scott surprising his girlfriend Dawn with music festival tickets for her birthday (along with 4 guests), a company dumping toxic waste, and 5 cannibalistic mutated individuals with genital faces. There’s also a plethora of subplots involving musicians, a reporter, concert vendors, and company lackeys. It’s all just an excuse for the titular killer mutants to wreak havoc on anyone they encounter.
Director Shawn C. Phillips (a filmmaker, actor, and YouTuber who champions physical media) is clearly living out his dreams of making low-budget horror comedy films. With “Desert Fiends,” Phillips has upped his game from a visual standpoint, but his screenwriting still leaves a lot to be desired.
Compared to Phillips’ previous works like “Amityville Karen” and “Woods Witch,” “Desert Fiends” is a much more technically impressive film. Cameron Jutte’s desert cinematography is noteworthy, there’s more of a variety of shots (including a “Grindhouse” style opening), the production values are higher, and the practical make-up and gore effects are arguably the highlight of the entire film. Seriously, there’s some brutal and memorable death scenes to be found in here if that’s up your alley. Where ‘Fiends’ falls short is with the storytelling. For starters, there’s just too many characters meandering about. It feels like Phillips is more concerned with stuffing in cast members and finding roles for people through his crowdfunding tiers instead of crafting a tight story. As a result, the narrative is unfocused and there’s far too many scenes that either linger on aimlessly or have no place being there whatsoever. All of these elements throw the pacing out of whack too. With more edits and tinkering, this could have been a stronger film. Maybe the forthcoming sequel will fare better?
The humor is what it is. It’s very juvenile and cartoony like his previous directorial efforts. Expect lots of toilet humor, poop jokes, and more genitalia gags than you can possibly imagine. The movie certainly never takes itself seriously. It’s like a goofier Troma or Full Moon type of flick.
There’s no shortage of cast members here. Viewers can expect to see a lot of familiar faces from the genre world including Spencer Breslin, Scout Taylor-Compton, Eric Roberts, Bai Ling, Tom Arnold, Robert LaSardo, Lorelei Linklater, etc. No one particularly stands out here, but the veteran actors tend to have the best acting moments to be sure.
Video/Audio:
Presentation: 2.35:1 1080p. Grade: B+
Audio Track: 5.1 DTS-HD MA. Grade: B+
No extras.
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