Homemade Double Feature

Peanut Butter and Jelly Pick of the Week. Two movies that really should be watched together with the lights down low and the surround sound turned up: SHOCK WAVES and THE OUTPOST. Both swim around in the same horror sub genre of secret nazi experimentation gone bad. SHOCKWAVES has been called “the best of the Nazi zombie movies.” Peter Cushing stars in the story which combines a deserted island, genetic experimentation, and a few hapless, trapped shipwrecked travelers. It has a great deal of creative energy in it, if not budget. Along the same lines, THE OUTPOST borrows from the mercenary tradition of PREDATOR. Soldiers are hired to transport a businessman to a forgotten underground bunker in order to secure Nazi science based on unified field theory. Of course, there’s more waiting for them than some creaky, rusty equipment. What may be the most interesting thing about THE OUTPOST is its genesis -- the film was produced by Scottish couple Arabella Croft and Kieran Parker and their production company Black Camel Pictures. They mortgaged their Glasgow home in order to raise £200,000 to finance production. Typically, these kinds of boutique endeavors turn out narcissistic productions, but in this case, while it does borrow liberally from other movies, the effort is sincere and aimed toward telling its story, and could in fact have been produced in Hollywood and released in theatres as opposed to a straight to DVD release, as it was picked up by Sony for distribution. The cinematography, sound, and production design adds great depth. Acting is solid.