Outpost caught my attention as soon as I walked into the DVD shop. The cover (pretty much what you see above) is damn eye-catching. Especially for a World War II pseudo-historian like myself. The premise is actually pretty interesting, follows along a number of conspiracy theories about Hitler and some pet projects. Basically, in order to try and win the war, Hitler tries to perfect a discarded Einstein theory in order to circumvent the usual space and time continuum in order to create indestructible superhuman soldiers. Not sure about the science? Neither am I, but they make a good attempt to pretend it makes sense. And the end result is of course pretty basic, make soldiers who can singlehandedly win any war. A good idea, perhaps, if you want to win the war when you are near surrender. The project is discovered in modern day by a batallion of hardened and grizzled mercenaries who have been hired to find this bunker in which the experiment was conducted. Obviously they aren’t told that to begin with. It’s your typical ‘get paid and ask no questions’ job. And so they find a bunker, and begin to search it. They find a mountain of bodies in one room, one of which is still alive. They dress him, and take him out to sit around for a bit, trying to figure out what is going on. The guy looks pretty creepy:

The man sits around looking generally ominous, with no real information about him. So the group have to continue to explore the bunker. Soon enough, it becomes quite clear that some things are not what they seem. The man sitting eerily at the table staring into space holds no answers, and the bunker seems to be becoming full of more and more creepy noises. Something is amiss. Considering the premise is written on the back cover, I think it is safe to tell you that there is remnant of Nazi evil about the bunker, and our resident scarred man is clearly at the center. Something that becomes ever aparent once he gets dressed for the occasion. He’s creepy sitting at the tabel. Although when he finds his old uniform, he’s even more creepy.

And he of course wouldn’t be complete without some minions, which you can see in the front cover:

 Now then, you can tell a few things right from the start. This is a pretty visually compelling film. It does actually deliver some serious gore, bits of blood and visual death, as well as some eerie scenery. There is some dialogue (nothing spellbinding, mind) which essentially serves as a stop gap for the moments of eeriness and creepiness. The film is not made to be fancy, it is not your MTV cuts and slowmotion and speed-ups, no scene is comprised of 12 different angles. It is straight-forward, and it is creepy the way it has this constant tone of menace and threat. Interjecting some footage that mimics actual documentary footage from Nazi science experiments only helps augment this eeriness and general discomfort that one would feel. And a great deal of that is aided in the sets and the design of the film.

The color spectrum is one of the highlights of this film. It has a tremendous sense of color. You can tell by the shots above that with the exception of the red of the Nazi flags sprinkled here and there in the film, it is a very grey and bleak film. It manages to paint a picture of pure desolation and colorlessness that just somehow makes it seem that little bit more in keeping with the subject matter. It throws in some fake documentaries about the experiment which were visibly inspired by some of the documentary photography and documentation of the experiments on Jews by the Nazis in many concentration camps. In that sense, it really does hit close to the bone and helps make it that little bit more authentic whilst being a supernatural horror film. You get the impression that the documentary style and the grey and earth colors keep this film from taking off into some overly unrealistic supernatural bend, and allow it to play out more like our classic slashers than our classic haunted house (haunted bunker?) stories.

The script and dialogue inevitably may be its weakest point. The mercenaries are not the deepest of characters, and the details that are given about the actual experiments and the setting are given pretty quickly. The actors do a good job with what little lines they are given, but they are hardly selling themselves as the next Oscar winners. Really, it is only because of the lack of dialogue that I give this film a lesser grade than perhaps I might. This film was never about the dialogue, however. It was intended to be a showcase of a creepy setting with some haunting images where things go wrong. With that in mind, it does a superb job.

Overall, this is a basic supernatural slasher with a good historic element, which is stylish and to the point. Well worth the watch, even if you don’t love studying Nazi Germany.

Grade: B+

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