Fans of director Neil Blomkamp have been in for a treat this year. With his new Oats Studio he has released various shorts this year (most around the 20-minute mark), which visually are on the same level as the big blockbusters. The first one was Rakka and the second he released was this one, Firebase. A story which is set in 1970, during the Vietnam war. The army has to face something supernatural.
This short film starts with the warning that its content isn’t suitable for everyone, and rightly so. Firebase convincingly shows various forms of body horror. Soldiers whose skin is removed, transformed soldiers who can’t seem to be killed and more. The horrific side of war, with an added layer of the supernatural, and an army which try to capture the thing which is causing it all. There is one soldier who always seem to be lucky, surviving the attacks and the CIA is sure that he can be the weapon against what they have now named “the river god”. Like Rakka before it, Firebase can be called a preview as the story isn’t told in its entirety, but despite that is well worth watching (if you can stomach it).
