Outpost

Horror blends with reality as Kate is awakened by a visit from her abusive spouse, Ted {Tim Neff), reliving a terrible physical pounding in which one can hear the cracking of bone and scrunch of flesh. Flashbacks and hallucinations abound as she descends to the edges of reality blur. Are those hikers and townspeople being kind, or are or a threat?   Kate messes up a fire, making a water plane to make a risky flight, causing the ire of her boss, Earl (Ato Essandoh), who has secrets of his own.    In one of the best sequences, the neighbour’s wife   Bertha (Becky Ann Baker) befriends the isolated Kate only to rot slowly and visibly in front of her while dancing about living life.

Outpost offers up a lovely natural scenery that only increases the depth of desolation and loneliness even in the daylight. The Tower stands like the Usher House from Roger Corman’s film, and the house in Psycho acts as the focal point of her salvation and horror. Sexual ambiguity is also illustrated in Kate as it is in the characters of Rodrick Usher and Norman Bates, which elevates the feeling of being an outsider. The Tower is a glass box in the air where Kate becomes more primal in her battle with herself, seeking heat, battling ants in her food, and even being naked to the world while washing.

“…trust director Truglio to get a raw performance and particularity toward the slashing ending…”

In the role of Kate, Beth Dover does well controlling the narrative of what is real and what is not. It also helps to be the real-life spouse of director-writer Joe Lo Truglio, who was primarily a cult comedy performer. Dallas Roberts, in the role of Ranger Dan, is one such person who lusts after Kate as he has a  creepy way of getting close to her in conversation only to understand there are boundaries not to be crossed.

One needs trust director Truglio to get a raw performance and particularity toward the slashing ending, and it shows that the cast works well together, delivering a performance so sharp you could shave with it.

Reality and shadows clash with blood, bear traps, and axe attacks in a startling conclusion. High Tension and the action thriller Revenge are both examples of French extreme cinema. Unsettling in its resolution and brutal in its intent, Outpost gives a nuanced account of the effects that trauma can have.