Le Poste de Garde

A grisly yet derivative horror flick set on a border post between North and South Korea. THE GUARD POST turns out to be a very familiar journey in its depictions of the terrors, both real and imagined, that befall a group of soldiers living in an ultra-remote and dangerous locale. The film it most resembles is R-POINT, another Korean movie with a very similar background, and if it isn't quite as good as that film then at least it makes the effort.

THE GUARD POST offers a neat blend of psychological fear and in-your-face graphic horror. It opens with a massacre (wisely kept off-screen) and we subsequently follow the fortunes of a group of soldiers sent to investigate what happened. What exactly did happen won't really surprise anyone – the theme is extremely familiar these days in plenty of horror films – but it's handled in an efficient way that maximises the various scare scenes to strong effect. There's physical horror present in the film too, but rather than dwelling on it, it's presented in brief, jarring visions which add to the viewer's disorientation.

One flaw prevents THE GUARD POST from being a great film: the disjointed editing. The decision was made to tell both the back-story leading up to the massacre and the present, investigative story at the same time, with rapid-fire editing between the two time frames. Unfortunately, this makes it difficult for the viewer to tell whether what's going on is happening at present, or in the past. It doesn't help that only a few of the main characters are given any kind of depth, and trying to distinguish one huddle of soldiers from the next is a difficult process. If it wasn't for this, then THE GUARD POST could have been a truly great viewing experience; as it stands, it's something I enjoyed but wouldn't bother with a second time.