Red Sands comes very close to being an excellent outpost horror movie. The overall setup is good, and it has many moments that are genuinely creepy, but on the whole the execution fails.
The setup:
A US Army squad is sent to guard what amounts to a small shack in the middle of the desert that sits next to what is supposed to be a road. They are supposed to stay there for a few days and report any enemy activity on the road. A fairly straightforward mission, and a good setup for a modern installment of outpost horror—the setting is remote, the main characters are soldiers separated from their main force, and so they have enough autonomy for eerie things to happen.
And happen they do. And unfortunately, that’s where the movie goes south. Up until things go awry, the movie was a pretty faithful rendition of what it’s like to be on outpost duty in the Army. The pacing of the film is slow, which works to its benefit. The audience gets a long period of normalcy that only gradually degenerates into the horrific, which is how the best horror works. The situation unravels slowly at first, which was great.
Unfortunately, most of what follows relies on events that don’t make much sense. The soldiers desecrate what appears to have been a shrine of some sort designed to imprison a djinn. In the context of the film, that part made sense, but it’s one of the only things that does. A village the squad visits (it made no sense for them to go visit the village; that was not part of their mission) is strangely deserted, and there is a man buried halfway in the sand. They don’t know what to make of it, but it’s implied to the audience that the djinn they accidentally released is responsible for killing the villagers—which doesn’t make sense because the djinn would have had to beat the squad to the village after being released, and the soldiers were riding in a HMMVW. Even accounting for the brief stop they made at the outpost before heading to the village, it doesn’t fit. The soldiers return to their outpost. Later that night, a strange young woman arrives. It isn’t much of a spoiler that she isn’t what she seems. That plot arc reminds me of Starship Troopers II: Here of the Federation. However, rather than taking a used concept and concentrating on making a good, focused execution of it, the film tries to do too much. Soldiers begin to go crazy, as they are haunted by visions of past mistakes. Their leader gradually becomes unhinged, but doesn’t seem to have a reason. There is a continual subplot regarding their radio, which seems to be broadcasting nothing but static and transmissions that are coming from an unidentified unit whose situation bears an uncanny resemblance to their own. Each of these would be interesting on their own, and each would have been simple enough to do well, but trying to do them all doesn’t quite work (though it comes close).
Sadly, as is common in these types of films, the director lost control in the final act and instead of a fitting conclusion it degenerates from a flawed but intriguing outpost horror film into the abyss of bad CGI that leaves a disappointed taste in the mouth.
This film makes the US military look very bad. This is art, so that’s okay, but it made me uncomfortable and I think it was gratuitous. One of the soldiers is a bit unhinged, and I found his level of abuse toward their prisoner disgusting, but as it relied on a flat character any political point the director might have intended was lost in the face of the fact that it all felt too forced—no soldiers I was ever stationed with openly tried to convince the others that it would be a good idea to rape a prisoner like it wasn’t a big deal. He just wasn’t a believable character, and that’s unfortunate because the rest of the characters were very believable.
My final comment is going to be about the scenery. I loved it. I don’t know if it was intentional or not, but the nighttime shots of their outpost verged on the surreal: The sandstorm the first night was great. The clouds cresting the hills behind the building were always in the same formation, night after night. None of the soldiers ever commented on it (why would they? They were inside most of the time and wouldn’t have noticed) but having that information as a viewer that they didn’t was exhilarating. It was a subtle clue that reality wasn’t playing by the rules any more, and they were trapped in a sort of private hell.
Ultimately, this is a good pick for those who enjoy outpost horror, but it’s a (deeply) flawed gem. I’d give it 3 out of 5 generally, with a half star bump within the outpost horror subgenre.
Red Sands IMDB Link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1103256/
