By GABE THOMAS
Written and directed by Joe Lo Truglio
Starring Beth Dover, Ato Essandoh and Dylan Baker
Gravitas Ventures
Making the leap from comedy to horror has had an incredible strike rate recently. As demonstrated by Zach Cregger’s Barbarian and John Krasinski’s A Quiet Place, there’s a surefire link between these two genre extremes. And this is without mentioning Jordan Peele’s work, which, quite frankly, can speak for itself. Joe Lo Truglio joins the pantheon of funny people gearing up to spill some blood with his feature directorial debut, OUTPOST.
After a violent assault, Kate (Beth Dover) takes a position as a fire lookout in an isolated watchtower. What begins as a much-needed getaway takes a deadly turn once her old demons come back to haunt her. What follows is a whirlwind of psychological terror causing her to doubt everything she knows.
Beth Dover delivers an exceptional performance, proving herself capable of handling some of the script’s more over-the-top moments in the film’s last act. Her good-natured personality inspires sympathy when the horrific elements of her backstory come bubbling to the surface. Playing a character who has been a victim of abusers and ill-intentioned men, Dover displays instincts that elevate some truly disturbing subject matter.
She’s not entirely alone, as Dylan Baker (Spider-Man 2) plays her widower neighbor, who carries similarly scarring emotional baggage. Baker easily switches from compassionate to resentful, keeping the audience on edge anytime his character is on screen. Also great is Ato Essandoh (Django Unchained) as the fire chief with a few skeletons in his closet. His frayed relationship with his sister (Ta’Rea Campbell) creates a sense of tension right away, but his demeanor is too charming to distrust.
Built on a sense of isolation, OUTPOST takes cues from early ’80s classics like The Shining. However, while the entire cast delivers lovingly layered performances, Kate never feels alone. Help never seems far away, making it difficult to fear for her safety. The stakes could have been much higher if there was a greater distance between the fire outpost and the nearby town. If the only contact she had with the outside world was through her radio, the impact of scare sequences would be vastly improved. As it stands, she seems to appear with another person in every other scene. The script works a lot more to tell the audience about her loneliness instead of showing it.
The movie features several chase scenes, all of which are shot with an excellent sense of geography and edited with terrific timing. On a technical level, the film makes expert use of location. Kate’s outpost is over 40 off the ground, creating anxiety when our protagonist needs to make a quick escape from her attackers. There are twists that, while familiar, still seem fresh in Lo Truglio’s hands.
There is an overreliance on hallucinations designed to confuse and misdirect the audience. Eventually, anything that seems even remotely unrealistic creates the impression that it’s merely a dream. This alleviates any worry that something bad might happen to her. Nevertheless, these sequences are quite intense, and I understand the writer’s thought process. Still, I find it flawed. Moments when Kate imagines things or confuses memories of her abuse with the present work as a message about PTSD but not as horror tropes. When all of the scariest parts turn out to be visions, the film loses credibility. Considering Joe Lo Truglio is a first-time director, who has never professionally worked in horror, this is likely a rookie mistake.
The attempts at comedy can be truly painful, as Lo Truglio allows Brooklyn Nine-Nine-style quips to fly in a film about the trauma of domestic abuse. Dark humor in horror can be wonderful, but it clashes with the message in an uncomfortable way. It might play differently if the jokes were funny, too.
The entire third act is a delight of surprises and horror mayhem that outweighs the earlier bumps in the road. The revelations are shocking, and Lo Truglio willingly leans into some B-movie carnage while still maintaining a level of realism in the sensitive subject matter.
OUTPOST is an outlandish debut from a beloved comedy personality. A kickass cast and beautiful forest cinematography play excellently alongside well-choreographed chases and disturbing hallucinations. While the occasional dream sequence or dud joke does its damndest to interrupt the story’s flow, Lo Truglio shows he has something exciting to offer the horror genre.
Joe Lo Truglio’s OUTPOST is now available on VOD from Gravitas Ventures.
