Creatures of War #23: The Guard Post (2008)

Good movie, bad news

Mar 02, 2025

Catch up

I am writing this before the Oscars, so my thoughts on that will remain a mystery. Just between us, I’m hoping for many Conclave wins. In general, I really don’t have a lot of stake in this year’s awards. I am almost done reading Roadside Picnic by the Strugatsky’s, and oh boy am I enjoying it. I picked up 2 more DVDs this weekend: Atonement (2007), which I have seen before and swore I’d never watch again, and Only Lovers Left Alive (2013), which I have not seen. My rent is increasing, work is hell, I may take a little break from writing, onwards and upwards.

Review

Sergeant Major Noh travels to the DMZ to investigate a strange incident at Guard Post 506. All but one of the soldiers are dead, seemingly murdered by their crazed comrade. Noh’s investigation gets increasingly out of hand when the new soldiers at the base start becoming sick.

The Guard Post (or GP506) is told through two converging timelines: what happened to the original crew, and Noh’s investigation with a new crew. The Guard Post is an inherently confusing movie until the events click into place. I suffer from severe face blindness, and a common issue I have with war-horror films is that there are a lot of characters, and they’re all dressed exactly the same.1 Add in two timelines with a common character? I was struggling. The Guard Post heavily relies on your complete attention. Things get twisty, and you’ve got to catch the details for the movie to work. While the writing gets a little muddy, I found the central mystery compelling. As fun to unravel as it is disorganized, I can see The Guard Post only getting better with a rewatch.

The Guard Post takes my favorite approach to zombies: an agonizing, horrible sickness. Instead of a quick transformation, we are presented with varying stages of the virus and how it affects our cast. The illness is slow, presents physically and psychologically, and even has a remission period. This not only lends itself to a very anxious movie as we can see the illness progress, but it also adds to the ambiguity of the whole situation. Are they really zombies, or are they just going crazy? Spoiler alert: The Guard Post picks the correct answer.2 There will be moments where characters are seemingly about to succumb to the virus, only for them to seem fine the next day. Monster one minute, familiar face the next. These tense situations are usually followed by humorous or slice-of-life moments of the soldiers. With a large cast of characters, these laid-back moments help the viewer connect emotionally. My favorite scene in the movie is when the soldiers are waving across the DMZ to the North Korean post. For a moment, they were just men goofing off, worlds apart.

Aesthetically, this is right up my alley. Dark bunker, bloody concrete, well-done and well-spaced gore, saturated color. Many war-horror movies go for a washed-out look, and while that works tonally, I’m always excited to see a movie that goes for a richer color palette. For a movie made in 2008, it still feels relatively timeless. The effects hold up well, and they’re really fucked up. This movie gets nasty, and I appreciate the commitment to being visually appealing and also really gross. Overall, I have very little to complain about. Perhaps a little narratively ambitious, but it’s a swing and a home run for me. The Guard Post is no 28 Days Later or Train to Busan, but it will join their ranks as one of my favorite zombie movies, for whatever that’s worth. Free on Tubi, as all good zombie movies are.

Death & Zombies

Sergeant Major Noh conducts this investigation immediately after his wife’s death. Throughout the movie, it's clear that he’s trying to remain professional and focus on the task at hand with a level head, but there are moments when he slips. He gets too rough during an interrogation, disobeys orders, and makes decisions he knows will only result in his own demise.

Several people I know are going through some health issues, and one passed away very suddenly. I wasn’t particularly close to this person, but to have them suddenly not there was a shock. With the stress of other events, I’ve had little time to actually process. I watched The Guard Post the weekend after they died, following a couple of days of trying to avoid any media that even mentioned death. After seeing the start of the movie with Noh at his wife’s funeral, I almost turned the TV off. It seemed like the people around me were trying to ignore the incident, and I thought maybe if I avoided any reminders, I could put this behind me too. Others need a steady and level-headed person right now, and that has always been me. I just don't do well with death (who does?), and the way I was raised was to not address it. Something bad happened? Okay, how do we fix it? There is no time for feelings; what I need is action, but death isn’t a problem to solve. It’s inevitable, it’s constant. An old employer of mine died several years ago, and I tried the same tactic then. I did not cry, I moved on, and about 3 years later, I had a meltdown over it. All I’m doing is delaying the reaction by ignoring the elephant in the room.

In a way, a zombie movie is the perfect medium to describe my feelings. Death is no longer the end of the line, the corpses get back up again. They keep moving, and they're after blood. The undead cannot be forgotten, cannot be ignored. Maybe this is how I should think of death. Real people don't turn into zombies, but if you keep pushing those emotions down, maybe they'll come back to haunt you anyway. Maybe I’m not ready to acknowledge the elephant in the room, but at least now I’m looking at it.

Til next time

Go watch The Guard Post if you have time. I think it’s worth it. Kong Su-chang also made the more popular war-horror movie R-Point (2004). I have yet to see R-Point, but it won’t keep me away for long. I tried my best to find out where Kong Su-chang is now because it seems like this guy is my guy, but I could find little information. I hope he comes back to writing and directing because I’d watch 100 of these movies.

Bonus

Any movie I’d recommend pairing with The Guard Post has already been recommended in previous posts, so instead, here are some songs I’ve been into lately:

I try to identify people based on their outfits and hair in real life as well, but it never works. Faceblind and bad with names; I never know who anyone is. Deathwatch (2002) is another movie that made me fight for my life to figure out who was who. However, with The Guard Post, once you establish the timeline, it becomes much easier to follow.

Zombies