“The Outwaters”

Movie Review

American horror movie The Outwaters was written, directed, and starred Robbie Banfitch. It is presented as recovered footage from friends' memory cards about their trip to the Mojave Desert to film a music video, where they come across strange and dangerous phenomena. On February 20, 2023, The Outwaters was made available in the United States.

The four major cast members—Robbie, Angela, Scott, and Michelle—are gone, and the movie begins with a frightened 9-1-1 call and accompanying imagery. The accompanying video was retrieved from three memory cards discovered in the Mojave Desert, according to a title card.

In order to assist in filming a music video for his friend Michelle in the Mojave Desert, Robbie, a budding filmmaker from Los Angeles, has enlisted the aid of his brother Scott and his friend Angela. He celebrates his brother's birthday, surprises his mother at home, hangs out with Angela, and talks to Michelle about her recently dead mother while preparing for the excursion. Robbie's flat was where two different earthquakes were captured on camera.

The first night is spent at a tiny lake while the four friends prepare their supplies and set off on their trek. The following day, as they travel further into the desert, a herd of donkeys blocks their path. They reach their destination, a little hillside place close to a dried-up lakebed, and start establishing camp there. The four are startled awake at night by booming noises and frenzied animal noises that seem to be approaching. Robbie and Scott leave their tent to look for clues but come up empty-handed. As he travels on his own, Robbie notices a strobing light along a hillside trail.

The crew starts filming the video and talks about the strange things that happened the night before. Detecting something peculiar beneath the earth, Robbie and Michelle visit the location where he spotted the light during a break and record high-pitched noises coming from a nearby hole. Robbie notes that throughout their visit, the battery on his camera remained fully charged. Robbie later discovers an axe on top of a neighboring hill. As the group moves to the lakebed to complete the video shoot, sounds resembling those heard earlier in the hole take over. The crew hears the booms and animal noises again at night. Robbie wanders off and spots an axe-wielding naked man on a hill. Off-screen, the man assaults Robbie as he flees, hitting him in the head. Robbie finds Scott asleep but the woman is in a hysterical state when he returns to the camp, bloodied and lost.

The two girls scream and beg for their lives as the camera pans to Robbie racing into the desert. He meets Scott and Angela, who are both covered in blood. Robbie makes his way free and finds refuge in a tiny ravine till daybreak. He leaves the building nude and lost and begins exploring the desert. He discovers that the region is now overrun with writhing, fleshy creatures that are shrieking. He goes back to the campsite that night and discovers the two tents covered with what appears to be Michelle's body, along with the viscera. After several near misses with his attacker, Robbie is led by the light to a pool of crimson water. He is brought back to the desert, where he vomits blood and cleans something from his foot. A mirage of himself and his three pals traveling through the desert in the past appears after he encounters the herd of donkeys. He pursues Michelle as she runs across the lake bed covered in blood. At the campsite, he runs upon a normal-looking Scott and Angela who are both covered in blood. After emerging from the tent, he finds himself in his mother's house, on a plane wing, and at a window, where he can see Scott.

Robbie encounters a gigantic monster back in the desert in complete darkness as it closely examines him and seems to be calling to more creatures in the distance. The two are ambushed by the worms as he flees and encounters Angela at camp. The red river carries Robbie away once more, and before the camera returns to the desert, it is seen hurdling past a string of white lights.

Robbie runs into his attacker, who resembles his doppelgänger, after discovering a gas mask and an outdated sign warning him that he is in a government-restricted area. The following day, Robbie discovers his three friends' decomposing heads impaled on spears. Then, on the ground, he discovers a gigantic animal's teeth. He dismembers himself after using it to sever his penis. The final image of the movie shows a deadly wounded Robbie grasping upward.

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