Outpost

OUTPOST

Director : Steve Barker

Year : 2007

Genre : Horror

Rating : *1/2



Recently in the horror movie canon, the Nazi's have been a staple of the zombie subgenre in films such as 'Dead Snow' and 'Shockwaves'. While some of them can be entertaining and fun such as 'Dead Snow', some can be dull and lifeless (no pun intended) like 'Outpost'. Despite a well known cast, interesting plot idea and a fantastic soundtrack, 'Outpost' really doesn't offer anything except mediochre horror, boring stereotypes and an unsatisfying climax.

The movie is about a group of multinational soldiers who in the present day infiltrate an abandoned Nazi bunker. While the leader is actually looking for a lost Nazi machine which turns people invisible, the soldiers are individually picked off by invisible Nazi ghost/zombies.

The movie really doesn't have much to offer in terms of character development with most of the characters being portrayed as gung-ho trigger happy soldiers who are willing to shoot anything that looks remotely like a threat. The soldiers consist of a large group of stereotypes; an angry Irishman, a black African who first killed someone when he was 15, a quick tempered scotsman, a conniving Russian and a dominating American. The main villain who is willing to sacrifice these men for the invisible machine is a sly, double-crossing Englishmen, who, if he had a moustache would be twizzling it throughout the duration of the movie. The soldiers are eventually picked off one by one in variously gory ways, but because most of the movie is set in the dead of night, most of it hidden by shadows. In an 18 rated horror movie, I expect more gore from what is essentially a silly exploitation movie and 'Outpost' has nothing which tells me that it deserves to be an '18'.

There are some interesting uses of lighting such as when the ghosts are first revealed in a very dim light, and the music does a good job of conveying the military aspect of the story. But the rest of the movie is so generic and hollow, that it is difficult to care about anything that happens in 'Outpost'. It all adds up to a wasted, uninteresting mess of a movie where the central concept is about as absurd as the entire film itself. A machine which turns people invisible is not my idea of a riveting plot anchor and I wish the movie had just been a typical Nazi zombie. I may have enjoyed it more then, rather than it having ideas above itself, propelling it into the realms of farce and ridicule.

Whilst I am not a fan of 'Outpost', I can see people enjoying it as a silly horror movie. There is nothing too scary for above 15's and some scenes are unintentionally funny. If you like zombie movies you may like 'Outpost', although to me, it does seem far too diluted to be remotely scary or engaging.