Shudder Saturday: Outpost (2023)

While looking to recover from a major traumatic event, a woman (Kate, played by Beth Dover) ends up hoping to enjoy some calm and isolation as a volunteer firewatcher at a fairly remote outpost, hence the title. But there are still interactions with others around her that cause her to fret, and her mental health may have suffered even more than she realised. 

The directorial feature debut from Joe Lo Truglio (arguably best known for his comedic acting work, particularly his portrayal of Charles Boyle on Brooklyn Nine-Nine), Outpost uses a fairly slim premise to look at aspects of trauma and the standard female experience. As well as directing, Lo Truglio is also the one who wrote the screenplay, and he makes a number of choices that show some genuine care and interest, as opposed to just stringing together a number of jump scares. Those are also present, but they are executed well, and keep us well-informed about the lack of real improvement in Kate’s mindset.

Dover is superb in the main role. Although there’s a very good supporting cast around her, she carries a lot of the movie on her shoulders and has to keep you rooting for her even as her behaviour seems to get progressively worse en route to whatever the finale has in store for her. Dylan Baker is as good as he always is, playing a “neighbour” who is quite far away from the outpost, but also closer than Kate is comfortable with, and there are equally strong turns from Ta’Rea Campbell (a concerned friend), Ato Essandoh (Kate’s new boss), and Becky Ann Baker (someone who appears to have gone through a similar experience to Kate).

Nothing stands out, in the technical side of things anyway, but that isn’t a major negative. Lo Truglio simply presents this (character/trauma) study in a way that best allows viewers to experience the range of emotions that our lead goes through, and it’s a checkmark in his favour that he doesn’t feel the need to pack the film with flourishes or obvious nods to his influences. The film is about Kate, something reflected on both sides of the camera, and everything is balanced between being cinematically satisfying and keeping everything nicely free of unnecessary distractions.

Maybe not one to easily recommend to horror fans, this is still worth the time and attention of those who don’t mind something so deliberately-paced and earnest in intention. Despite being written and directed by a man, it feels very knowledgeable of, and sympathetic to, how every small moment of tension and vulnerability is heightened when experienced by a woman.

8/10

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Netflix And Chill: Reptile (2023)

Not only is Reptile co-written by director Grant Singer, but star Benicio Del Toro apparently had a helping hand in the screenplay, alongside Benjamin Brewer. That makes it even more curious, considering how Del Toro is the best thing in it DESPITE the weak screenplay. A messy mix of neo-noir tropes and moments that seem to be struggling to give the movie more substance, Reptile is enormously unsatisfying. And it's made all the worse by how badly it wastes a great cast.

Del Toro plays a cop named Tom Nichols. He's been entangled in some bad stuff in the past, but he seems to be trying his best to be good at his job. That is essential when he is called to the scene of Summer Elswick's murder. Summer's body was discovered by Will Grady (Justin Timberlake), making him a prime suspect, but others soon start to arouse suspicion. It doesn't help that Grady and his mother (Frances Fisher) have upset people with their business practices. One of those upset people is a young man named Eli (Michael Pitt), who blames the Gradys for the suicide of his father. Maybe there's more to the case than what seems obvious though. Maybe Tom needs to start looking at everyone around him with equal suspicion.

Although he has a wealth of experience helming music videos, this appears to be the feature debut from Singer. That makes complete sense when you consider how much (misplaced) faith he has in the strength of such clumsy and half-baked material. There are some good moments here, some strong individual images, but there are just as many moments that don't work, whether it's the plotting of the central mystery that doesn't feel worth really caring about or the moments that have a discordant piece of music increasing in volume in a way that's supposed to unnerve viewers and lead to some nerve-tingling climax, but then fails to present anything to justify that audio choice. With both Brewer and Del Toro similarly inexperienced in the role of feature writer, Reptile is left as a collection of decent images that can barely cling on to the decomposing skeleton of the script that should have given it a strong centre.

Del Toro is much better in front of the camera though, and he's the best thing about this. His performance is easily on a par with some of his best work, and equally thoughtful and morally discombobulated, at times. Alicia Silverstone is excellent in the role of his wife, although she also suffers from one or two moments that seem to just peter out just as they could get more interesting. Timberlake is fine, working comfortably with a persona that he tends to portray well in movies, Fisher is riveting, despite having disappointingly little screentime, and Pitt adds another quirky turn to his repertoire. The fact that the film also has room for great work from Eric Bogosian, Domenick Lombardozzi, and Ato Essandoh (playing the partner to Del Toro's character) is both a plus and a minus, because everyone here deserves to be delivering that great work in a stronger film.

I'm guessing that this is a story that Del Toro was passionate about, considering he also attached himself as an executive producer, and I can see how the whole thing could have been handled much better, but the end result feels like a wasted opportunity. The cast cannot be faulted though, nor can the cinematography from Mike Gioulakis (with shot choices and framing complemented by some fine editing from Kevin Hickman). Technically, all is well. It's just the writing and direction that work against it, but those are the two areas that need to be locked down for this kind of material.

4/10

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