Is Horror in the High Desert the most underrated found footage horror?

After appearing on many best-found footage horror lists, I decided to sample 2021’s Horror in the High Desert.

Directed by Dutch Marich, the film masquerades as a documentary, as we follow the disappearance of a young explorer in the Nevada desert lands.

What the film does so well, is genuinely convince us as viewers, to a point, that this is a true story and while it is based partially on a the disappearance of a man previously, it very much carves its own story.

Marich does so well developing the character of the disappeared hiker Gary Hinge, mainly through the exposition interviews of his sister and his former roommate. As the story unfolds, we get the feeling he has got deeper into something he truly doesn’t understand, mainly through the need to please followers across social media.

Horror in the High Desert has an emotional core and really rips the heart out, especially when it twists the knife and becomes genuinely hair-raising terrifying.

The film shows if you develop interesting characters when you put them in genuine peril, you feel almost every beat. Some have argued it’s a slow burn, even at around 80 minutes long, but the pay-off is so worth it.

Hinge also is a queer character which is something we don’t always see in found footage, and this adds another layer to his character given how lonely he appears and you wonder if this is due to a bad break-up or having not found the right person yet.

I felt Horror in the High Desert carried a similar style to The Outwaters, which although more art-house in approach, still had some scary moments.

The best thing for me was that this is the first film in what appears to be a trilogy, with the sequel Minerva released last year and a third film on the verge of release.

As a sub-genre, found footage is one of the only ones that I feel can genuinely scare audiences as its often about what you see rather than what the characters do. It’s about exploring the entire frame and seeing the danger that could be just behind someone.

If you haven’t had a chance to check it out yet, Horror in the High Desert is guaranteed to send a chill up your spine.

Horror in the High Desert is available now on Amazon Video.