Outpost (2008)

This film should have been more than it was. The premise is great, the atmosphere is spot-on, the costumes and make-up are menacing and the characters are pretty decent. This menace is somehow lost, however, at some point during the overblown final plot-arc, which is a major shame because it really looks stunning and builds up some satisfying apprehension.
I cannot give it less than three stars, but only because I absolutely love this sort of thing, having grown up with Wolfenstein and Doom to take me to the early hours. One day somebody will nail this idea and unleash true grim krieg.

Down in an abandoned bunker in Eastern Europe...

"SPOILERS"

Outpost is the feature length directing debut of Steve Barker, it's written by Rae Brunton and is produced by Arabella Croft & Kieran Parker; who financed the film themselves by mortgaging their own Glasgow home. Starring are Ray Stevenson, Julian Wadham, Richard Brake & Michael Smiley. The plot sees scientist and businessman Hunt (Wadham) hire a mercenary crack team headed by DC (Stevenson) to protect him on a perilous mission into Eastern Europe. There they are to locate an abandoned bunker in no-man's land and seemingly gather information to aid Hunt's research. However, once at the outpost, the men make a horrific discovery - one that is only the start of the terror to come.

Lets get the blatantly obvious negatives out the way first, the kind that pithy critics enjoy beating an independent film with. Outpost is not fresh, certainly not in story, setting and god forbid -- logic. Channeling (by the makers own admission) John Carpenter's spooky 1980 movie The Fog - with more than a nod towards Michael Mann's The Keep & Ken Wiederhorn's Almost Human - Outpost does, from the off, have a familiar ring to it. Yet Barker's movie can stand on its own two ghostly feet on account of it having heavy atmosphere that's nicely blended with no short supply of the grisly. This is not about cheap shocks, though. Barker slow burns the first half hour and then steadily turns up the heat as the secrets of the "Outpost" start to unravel, with the sense of dread that accompanies said unravelling palpable in the extreme.

Away from the rewarding creepy vibe that dominates the piece, the technical aspects also stand up considerably well. Barker's directing is unobtrusive and aware of its genre roots, with a cartoon/animation section deftly effective, while Brunton's screenplay is lean and lets the characters breath. That it has commentary on the barbaric nature of the Nazis and slots in a Die Glocke for its core, also, should not be understated, war is hell is as apt a saying here, as apt can be. Note worthy on the war is hell theme is that here the makers are saying war is always and everywhere,… not only is the film set with one foot in a historic war and the other in a "today" war, but each of the mercenaries represent a soldier from a different war-zone around the world. With the wooded valley of Dalbeattie near Castle Douglas in Scotland standing in for Eastern Europe, Gavin Struthers does wonders on photography. Smartly stripping the colours down to a near monochrome finish that lends weight to the historical context of the story, he also makes the interiors claustrophobic and captures rich detail for the exteriors. The score from James Seymour Brett is one of the better ones for a low-fi British horror, suitably pulse like, and the acting is no-nonsense and befitting the characters within.

With a no cop out and suitably bleak ending, Outpost isn't after the popcorn crowd. It may be heavily influenced by past down in the woods army like shockers, but it sure as hell shows the likes of Rob Green's awful 2001 movie, The Bunker, how it should be done. 7/10