This is a slooooow burning film. It's so slow that I'd remove the word "burn" and replace it with "kinda glows then fizzles and dies."
Ash & Dust struck me as a first film (i.e., debut feature length for director) and it wasn't marketed aggressively so I am giving it some slack. There are some promising elements, but they never coalesce into a holistic entity.
Acting is pretty good for the most part, but a few actors are not meant for that career and I won't name names.
Finally, in case anyone is wondering why there are some 8- 9- and 10-star reviews, simply click on those reviewers' user names and you'll see that if they aren't one-review accounts, they've all reviewed the exact same movies including "Hyde", "Angie: Lost Girls", and "Devil Djinn" on almost identical dates. IMDB needs to start charging money for the ability to post reviews or do what Yelp! Does and actually police the fake ones. This is the main reason the site is useless for deciding whether to watch indie flicks these days.
If I had the chance again, Ash & Dust would get a hard pass from me.
3/10 for story plus 1/10 for decent cinematography = 4/10, just barely watchable.
