Overlooked on its minimal theatrical release, OUTPOST is an impressively eerie and beautifully shot (in widescreen) addition to an already-interesting bunch of wartime horror movies including R POINT, THE KEEP and (from the UK) DEATHWATCH and THE BUNKER. Director Steve Barker, making sinister use of the darkened edges of the frame and achieving a sustained atmosphere of dread from his visual palette of greys, shadows and carefully lit interiors, has made a strong calling card.
Eastern Europe, the present. At the request of a mysterious stranger, a band of mercenaries are sent on a peculiar mission that leads them to a German bunker that was once allegedly used by the Nazis for ethnic cleansing. The bunker houses a heap of fairly fresh dead bodies and one pallid, catatonic survivor, though a key member of the team insists they hang around because he feels they are on the trail of bonafide Nazi gold.
It transpires that the “holy grail of physics” may well be contained within the bunker. The Nazis were striving for the same elaborate breakthrough in field theory as Einstein, attempting to create a machine that would explain all matter in the universe. They were specifically bidding to “enhance” their soldiers, making them invulnerable in times of conflict via a process with shades of the Americans’ “Philadelphia Experiment”. This results in a formidable, elusive menace that stalks the team in the present day.
Centering around a marvelously sinister, shadowy and indestructible menace (the silent Nazi figures may be zombies or ghosts, it’s never quite clear), OUTPOST delivers brief bouts of graphic savagery (including a nasty bit of eye violence) but the accent is on scary ambience, something that director Barker pulls off with skill. At the core is an antagonistic all-male ensemble reminiscent of John Carpenter’s THE THING; and by way of homage, the script offers a variation on that film’s most memorable line (“Oh, you’re humming my balls” replaces “You’ve got to be fucking kidding!” and is delivered by SPACED star Michael Smiley).
There are witty incidental details (especially a cute animated Nazi super-soldier recruitment video) and a whole lot of expertly constructed scares peppering the controlled, spooky build up. Barker plays with “look behind you” shocks and pulls off some genuine fear-frissons : one sequence involves a guy playing chess with the catatonic – he picks something up and under the table sees more than one pair of legs beneath. There’s a DESCENT-ish sequence with a flickering light source capturing some indiscernible thing skittering around in the shadows. The look of this low-budget chiller is often impressive – check out a stunningly shot nocturnal battle – and the use of sound (including James Brett’s score) is exceptional.
Fitting the oppressively dark mood is a satisfying downbeat ending reinforcing OUTPOST as a Brit horror worth tracking down.
-Steven West
- Interview with J.R. Bookwalter - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Andrew J. Rausch - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Rick Popko and Dan West - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Director Stevan Mena (Malevolence) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Screenwriter Jeffery Reddick (Day of the Dead 2007) - January 22, 2015
- Teleconference interview with Mick Garris (Masters of Horror) - January 22, 2015
- A Day at the Morgue with Corri English (Unrest) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Writer/Director Nacho Cerda (The Abandoned, Aftermath) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Actress Thora Birch (Dark Corners, The Hole, American Beauty) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Actor Jason Behr, Plus Skinwalkers Press Coverage - January 22, 2015
