B-Movie Inspirations: Dustwalker (2019)

B-Movie Inspirations: Dustwalker (2019)

I found this movie on Tubi TV and the poster for it had me with tentacles. I watched the subsequent trailer and I got even more interested despite the fact that it looks like a bad-SyFy movie made by Gravitas Ventures (just as much a red flag as Asylum Productions). The movie takes place in a remote town in the Australian outback. A couple of mysterious objects crash to Earth from space and something slowly takes over the town, seeming to feed on the people. But there is more to the story.

The setting is a very remote town out in the middle of a Australian desert. Not sure what value is out there other than to get away but someone built a town for some reason. Everyone knows everyone and everything about everyone. There is lots of dust and heat. It is very desolate. Perfect setting for a strange encounter that no one will ever really find out about.

The main characters of this story are pretty strait forward. The town sheriff – Joanne Sharp – and her sister, the town school teacher – Samantha – are kind of the central characters. Deputy Luke and local astronomer Angela are supporting caste, among others. There are also a group of four or five teenagers that become enthralled in the plot, but they don’t help much except in expanding the story a little. One of the teens saw the objects initially and tell that part of the story. There are also a group of school children that the sister protects and becomes a center of tension during certain scenes.

The story begins as townspeople come in contact some kind of red moss stuff that you assume came from one of the space objects. Those people that do so, become lifeless zombies that initially stand completely still and if you look closely, their something appears to be growing underneath their skin. Inexplicably, these frozen zombies randomly awaken and begin killing anyone that is not infected – men, women and children. As the virus like moss stuff spreads, more and more people become slaves to whatever is controlling them.

The heroes all try to keep as many children and teenagers safe as possible and understand what is happening to the town. There are some pretty subtlety grisly scenes and dark moments as they all escape the army of infected. Meanwhile, something popping up from underneath the ground with a spiney tendril that skewers the infect, killing them and lifting them away. Sometimes this occurs just in time to save the heroes. These moments remind you there were two objects that fell.

At one point during the movie, the group gets the great idea to actually get the heck out of Dodge. When the scientist Angela tries to drive out of town, she runs into a massive stand-storm like wall that seems to be surrounding the town. When they try to drive into it, they are arrive right back where they entered, going the opposite direction – towards town. They can not escape.

The towns people don’t realize they are dealing with two entities and when the heroes encounter the second – a very cheesy CGI creature – they mistake it for the source of the virus. It’s not entirely clear if it is or if it is something sent to clean up the virus but it is clear the infected hate and even fear the creature. The creatures has a tentacle like tail that can reach just about anywhere, it seems, that he uses to stab the infected and drags them away. It is large, perhaps even huge, on four legs and sharp nasty teeth. It is fast and very agile.

In the end, that the creature is collecting all the infected to destroy them in one mass grave. The creatures is seen using one last weapon – fire breath – to burn the bodies.

From an RPG stand point, this is a great little contained story that can be placed in any genre. This could easily be placed in a western setting. Or a fantasy setting. I have used this kind of story in a sci-fi setting – where a distant colony was threatened by an army of bad guys and another distant race sent a bounty hunter enforcers to capture them. Of course you go through the same kind of “who is the enemy” or “the enemy of my enemy” sort of scenario.

On the flip side, you can change the creature into something more sinister. Maybe this is how they feed. They seed a world with stuff and let it grow in organic beings to feed on it. Or a different kind of Predator vs Alien type scenario. The motivation of the antagonist can be manipulated in many ways.