Robbie Smith demonstrates that, once again, indie horror is where all the good stuff is. His new film, I Don’t Like It Here, co-written with Dashiell Arkenstone, marries the creep-out factor of Dutch Marich’s Horror in the High Desert films and the later sequels in Turner Clay’s The Blackwell Ghost series, with a dash of The Strangers tossed in for good measure. Smith also manages to blend traditional filmmaking, mockumentary style, and found footage into a terrifying mixture. Each part is as strong as the other, and you can never quite catch your breath. Sometimes, it’s what you don’t see that’s scariest—or disembodied voices saying “I’m going to get you” in the middle of the desert will do the trick, too.
Paul Verow (Jacob Matthew Nichols) has just been paroled. He heads back to his small hometown to get his head on straight and re-adapt to normal life. His family doesn’t greet him upon release; in fact, they are nowhere to be found. Paul got the short end of the stick when it came to a tragic incident invovling his high school buddy Stephen Yeager (Matthew Ciazza). But he’s paid the price. He just wants to get on with his life. He reconnects with his friend Angie (Danielle Keaton), and the two spend the night together.
Here’s where things get a little dicey. There’s a serial killer loose, and he’s picking off young men in their early to mid-20s, right around Paul’s age. A series of talking heads tries to pick the mystery apart, each subject giving their account of events around the Yeagers, who, everyone admits, are a strange bunch. Investigators share footage found on three recovered tapes, and the audio presumably features the killer stalking his victims in the desert. The camera shoots low to the ground, and all you can really make out is various desert vegetation. It’s the warped audio that delivers the real frights, so bone-chilling that it’ll make damn sure your doors are locked at all times.
Smith opts for subtle, quiet scares, rather than jolt-you-awake jump scares. And that’s a good thing. I Don’t Like It Here lingers in the back of the mind. Its insidious form of fear startles you late at night when you believe the pile of laundry is a body and a house’s normal creaks are footsteps. There’s also a remarkable style and care taken with framing, angles, and color, all operating together to enhance the chills as much as possible. Cinematograph Mark David gets major credit here, of course. Much of the terror grows out of a suffocating dread that the filmmaking team crafts so masterfully.
Robbie Smith’s I Don’t Like It Here follows a long tradition of mockumentaries, also drawing influence from films such as Lake Mungo and Hell House LLC. Found footage proves to be a mighty force in 2026, and Smith’s film cuts through the noise like the killer’s butcher’s knife through bone. It’s very likely to be a sleeper, but it’ll find its audience soon enough.
I Don’t Like It Here is now streaming on Screambox.
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