Quartile rating: 6/10 · 1 rating
A group of Mexican emigrants attempts to cross the Mexican-US border. What begins as a hopeful journey becomes a harrowing, bloody and primal fight for survival when a deranged, rifle-toting vigilante and his loyal Belgian Malinois dog chase the group of unarmed men and women through the treacherous borderland. In the harsh, unforgiving desert terrain, the odds are stacked firmly against them as they discover there’s nowhere to hide from the unrelenting, merciless killer.
Desierto is a lean, stripped-down survival thriller that trades narrative complexity for relentless tension. The premise is blunt and politically charged but not particularly original — a cat-and-mouse chase across the desert with a one-dimensional villain. Gael García Bernal does solid work with an underwritten protagonist, and Jeffrey Dean Morgan is menacing but shallow. The desert cinematography captures the harsh, sun-scorched environment effectively though not memorably. The film offers little beyond its basic premise — no real character development, subtext, or surprising structural choices. The ending is serviceable but anticlimactic, resolving with little emotional payoff given the ordeal endured.