Nameless (2026) by Tom Devlin

Director: Tom Devlin

Year: 2026

Country: USA

Alternate Titles: N/A

Genre: Slasher

Plot:

Heading out into the desert, a group of friends, hoping to use the trip to honor a departed friend, find the area hunted by a nameless serial killer looking to silence the pain that his past has caused him and must work together to survive the brutal killer’s assault to get away alive.

Review:

Overall, this was a fairly solid one-note slasher effort. One of the better features with this one is the rather fun build-up that brings the group out to the desert and gets brought into the killer’s sphere rather nicely. The central idea here, involving the trip out there as a way for them to get back to nature and honor a friend of theirs who has recently passed away and doing something he loved as a way to remember what he meant to them, comes off as a fine excuse to bring them out to the desert location and remain away from society the entire time in the grandest traditions of the genre. With the whole thing giving them a chance to explore their own connection to the friend and allowing the group’s personalities to shine, it all ends up serving this rather well.

As well, it also serves this incredibly well to offer up some great stalking scenes of the massive, hulking killer roaming around the desert picking them off one by one. The opening assault on the couple camping out in the wilderness gets this off to a fine start, while the different video recreations of the killers’ history prowling the area feature some really intriguing stalking scenes that bring about his propensity for barbed wire weaponry. The main stalking scenes, focusing on the couple attempting to get down in a secluded tunnel, the ambush on the lone traveler wandering through the desert looking for help, or the frenetic confrontations he has with the group as they explore the remote hideout one by one, bringing about some strong stalking scenes, brutal kills, and some decent enough twist reveals along the way. These all manage to have quite a lot to like.

There are some drawbacks here that bring this one down. The biggest drawback of the film is the need to present it as a recollection of events passed down to patrons at a roadside diner. This is an unnecessary deviation from the main storyline involving the friends going out to honor their friend, as the purpose of that easily leads the film along without much need to go back to the waitress talking to others. It creates a weird dynamic when they’re presented as the main leads of the film, only to then introduce the other set heading out into the desert to do the same thing, and then keep cutting back to them reacting to the tale, since it disrupts the momentum and relentless pacing of the story.

The other flaw with this one is a rather expected and not that intriguing twist at the end regarding the killer having family relationships involved in hunting the group down, which isn’t hidden that well at all, and manages to offer up the kind of expected notes that don’t quite land like they should. This is part of so many similar genre entries that it's not all that this whole thing plays out like supposedly shocking revelations but are just par for the course in this type of genre entry. It makes them feel expected more than anything when they're introduced at the last minute to try going for the overwhelming sense of hopelessness the rest of the story had built up, and with the low-budget limitations also in play, all come together to bring this down somewhat.

Overview: ***.5/5

A really solid and likable indie slasher, there’s a lot to enjoy here, which is used to keep this going rather nicely against a few small issues that do hold it back only slightly. Those with an appreciation for the style attempted here, who are curious about it, or who are fans of the creative crew, will have a lot to like here, while most others might want to heed caution.