Worth: $15.00
FilmInk rates movies out of $20 — the score indicates the amount we believe a ticket to the movie to be worth
Cast:
Beth Dover, Dallas Roberts, Ato Essandoh, Dylan Baker, Becky Ann Baker
Intro:
Something a little different for genre fans who want a good story and characters along with the standard horror thrills.
The directorial debut by comic actor Joe Lo Truglio (Brooklyn Nine-Nine), and starring his real life wife, Beth Dover (Orange is the New Black), Outpost is relatively free of horror genre cliches … until we get to the bloody end. While the final scenes are predictable, the bulk of this film relies on a strong narrative and great character interactions.
Dover plays Kate Riley, a traumatised woman who’s just been brutally abused by her partner. She’s having hallucinations and flashbacks – nowhere feels safe. But she’s gutsy and independent and, through a friend, gets a volunteer job in northern Idaho as a fire lookout.
Up high in her own very private Idaho – a single room, no plumbing abode perched on stilts on a mountain – she keeps watch for fires over the rugged landscape. The scenery is incredible and the whole film feels like something from another era, like a grainy 1970s horror/thriller.
Outpost is well paced, holding your interest through its web of interesting characters. Another pair of real life spouses – Becky Ann Baker and Dylan Baker – put it great performances. She as Bertha, a hiker (maybe) who Kate befriends, and he as Reggie, a moody widower and Kate’s nearest neighbour, who may not be who he seems. Outpost will keep you guessing about the handful of characters Kate encounters as we see them all through her paranoid eyes.
There’s quite a bit of gore in the final act, but overall, it gets less screen time than the average genre flick, with suspense and psychological scares as important to writer/director Lo Truglio as blood and body parts.
Shot on location in Idaho’s forests and using a real lookout as Kate’s temporary home, Outpost certainly has authenticity. Something a little different for genre fans who want a good story and characters along with the standard horror thrills.
