Writer, director Joe Lo Truglio makes a curious choice for his feature length directorial debut.

We initially side with Kate (Beth Dover – Orange Is The New Black) a victim of domestic violence, but decides to remain head strong and vigilant in her recovery process.

Her decision is somewhat marred however as she ventures to a remote location to mend her wounds, which just so happens to be an outpost designed to spot fires in the surrounding woodland and alert the authorities to prevent widespread.

The issue is that by segregating herself from the world, albeit within range of a local town community, she not only is running away from her fears but is also doing so in a place where she is forced to live with her own thoughts, surrounded by the threat of danger, lurking at any moment. Naturally, Kate is on hyper alert at all times nursing herself through the aftermath of a traumatic experience.

All of this bodes well in theory and people seem to be bending over backwards to support her needs so that she can feel that sense of accomplishment, but things soon start to unravel as her paranoia sets in and her trepidation escalates.

It is from this point that there are clumsy choices that soon push the viewer from empathy to disdain, as gradually Kate goes from victim to  assailant, acting out her pent up aggression and unleashes on all who cross her path.

Whilst you can understand the transgression, the twists and turns she takes in order to get there are drastic, forcing the viewer to disconnect with our initial protagonist and abandoned without any sense of direction or where their loyalty should belong.

The Prognosis:

For a debut feature, Joe Lo Truglio goes bold, but fails to pull off his vision due to a lack of cohesion, nor depth in his skill set for it to land successfully.

A lot of promise, but ultimately stranding the audience without a solid ground from which to draw conclusions from.

– Saul Muerte

Outpost (2022) is available on major streaming platforms in UK & Ireland from September 11th and Australia & NZ from September 13th.

iTunes Link:  https://itunes.apple.com/au/movie/outpost-2022/id1700740637