Horror in the High Desert 3: Firewatch

The story of this movie series keeps developing. I have to point out the new character-Oscar, since I saw myself in this character,his smiles,words and tones just lit me up. Also, I love the way how the director unveiled the core of this story, which made me keep track of every detail in this movie. Director aimed to make me feel unsettling in every creepy clip of the new footage in this third one as the first one did. The story from the night-shift conductor, which only shows a big pale moon in that scene, gave me goosebumps. Dutch Marich held the weird vibe and the suspense effectively til the end. Let us wait for the fourth one to come in the near future.

The way in which this series has transcended from a horror to thriller to mystery and back again while weaving its own distinct style, full of rich characters, has my full attention. I will be seated for every entry to come. I have just come from reddit where the theories on what is taking placing within the narrative are rampant and it's difficult to not rack my brain coming up with my own. The wait for this one to come out had people in a fervor, the kind of attention and following that money can't buy these days so I hope Merich and his team don't sell out to Hollywood execs and make the franchise paint-by-numbers schlock. Eagerly awaiting Part 4.

This is a divisive series, even among found footage fans, who are already used to having this genre crapped on, even by other horror fans. Those people who crap on found footage will absolutely find some ammo here.

The typical complaints with this movie is that very little happens most of the time and then something very creepy happens at the end but by that point, most people have already tapped out. Even I, when I heard this was coming out, hoped the director would switch it up this time. Not only does the director follow the same exact format though, he actually DEcreases the already low amount of actual horror in the movie. There are a couple of genuinely tense scenes, hence the two stars, but those sequences go absolutely nowhere. The trademark "final" scene where we're finally supposed to get the payoff? It's laughable. Insulting, even. I don't know what the director was thinking with this but he's completely killed my enthusiasm for a part 4 and the positive reviews are obvious shills.

Another reviewer called this one of the biggest disappointments of 2024. I have to agree. Every hyped found footage this year, including Late Night, has been a disappointment, but none bigger than this one. I'm stunned.

The most impressive thing to me about the Horror in the High Desert saga is the insane handle the creators have on the world building and lore. We've been blessed with the 3rd film in this series, Horror in the High Desert: Firewatch (2024) and I still don't understand what the hell is going on, but I am so fascinated and so spooked and so impossibly immersed in all of it. Horror in the High Desert really succeeds where a lot of found footage/faux documentary seem to struggle a bit, and that is giving you characters that don't appear to be the least bit fabricated. In fact, my own mom thought she was watching an actual true crime program before I broke the news to her.

While this film ends on a hell of a cliffhanger, it does make me more excited and continue to speculate where they might take this story next.

I absolutely fell in love with part 1 of this series. It met its hype and it was the first horror to scare me like that in a long time. Part 2 came along and didn't hit those same heights but still knew how to dial the tension to 11. The long awaited part 3 demonstrates that the filmmakers, clearly with a lot of skill, are still able to create an atmosphere of dread. The story is moved forward somewhat and some dots are now definitely connecting which is good. Again it looks good with the setting perfect to create that atmosphere. Sound production again is solid with you questioning every small noise.

It's not perfect. I think the biggest issue it suffers is that with the story, with what is known has happened to others in previous installments ,is it really plausible the main character would do all the things he does without backup etc? I seriously doubt that. Most of the cast are still very good and so well to make you believe this could be real. Only one takes away the believability, and I found this part quite distracting but as it's relative unknowns and this character was only a brief feature, Ill let it slide. I also predict that some will find the less is more approach to scares somewhat frustrating with little more in the way of reveal of who or what this is in part 3, but for me this isn't too much of an issue.

There is a big job at hand for the filmmakers to start really bringing this together in the next two parts, but I can honestly say, after another nerve shredding entry, I'm definitely in for that journey.