DIRECTED BY

Joe Lo Trugilo

STARRING

Beth Dover, Becky Ann Baker, Dylan Baker, Dallas Roberts, Ato Essandoh, Ta’Rea Campbell and Tim Neff

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SYNOPSIS

After a violent attack, a woman searches for strength in the solitude of a lookout job, but is overwhelmed by something darker.

Outpost marks the directorial feature debut of Joe Lo Trugilo, who is well known for his comedic performances on the big screen (Superbad and Role Models) and small screen (Brooklyn Nine-Nine). The film focuses on Kate, a woman who suffers a traumatic event involving a man named Mike. With the help of her friend Nickie, Kate moves to Idaho to work with Nickie’s brother, Earl, as a fire lookout volunteer for the next three months. After being shown her way around the neighbourhood as well as the outpost, Kate is soon left on her own in the mountains, unable to leave her outpost, making her become overwhelmed by isolation and paranoia. To protect the tower, she must discover the truth, confront those responsible and face her own demons.

With this being his directorial feature debut, based on the script that he wrote, what impressed me the most, particularly in the first half of the film, as he builds up the psychological tension well from the moment the film begins, with us not seeing the act of violence inflicted until Kate, but through a black screen with some audio and then cut to us seeing Kate with the bruises afterwards. Before she even begins setting plans into motion of gong away to Idaho, we see how her mind begins to play tricks on her, as she looks down at the crowd at the restaurant and they all stop what they’re doing and look back at her. Believing that moving to a place of isolation would do her the power of good becomes the exact opposite for Kate, as it further increases her panic attacks and especially hallucinations, which leads us to know more about her history and mental wellbeing. The use of the landscape surrounding the outpost is captured well by cinematographer Frank Barrera and some of the musical choices by Steph Copeland also really heighten the paranoia of Kate’s state-of-mind.

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The majority of the film rests on Beth Dover’s shoulders and, for the most part, I thought she gave a good performance as Kate, and she’s helped with having a supporting cast that includes a game Becky Ann Baker as Bertha, one of the hikers that passes by the outpost, and Dylan Baker as Reggie, a widower who enjoys living in the peacefulness of the mountain land. While I liked at least the first half of the film, there is a point that, due to the films runtime, it pretty much telegraphs early-on what’s going to happen in the films final act and while it takes too long to get to that reveal, the rest of the final act itself feels disjointed in comparison to what came before. It also doesn’t help either the way, the final act in particular, is edited.

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VERDICT

Outpost has a lot of things going for it, but it unfortunately falters with its promise in the final act. A shame really as Lo Trugilo up till that point had made a decent psychological thriller, with a game performance by Beth Dover and solid supporting performances by Becky Ann Baker and Dylan Baker.

★★

OUTPOST WILL BECOME AVAILABLE ACROSS DIGITAL PLATFORMS ON THE 11TH SEPTEMBER 2023.