Enjoy this Monday with Mildred!
This is also Zombie World Tour post!
Outpost
Eastern Europe in the present day is gloomy, sodden and dreary, a sepia toned ruin. Through the fraught urban landscape an army truck full of grim men, armed past the teeth (one fashionably asleep) rumbles through the blasted slum and up into the dangerous wooded wilderness. As they speak roughly to each other you notice quickly that this is a multicultural troop. Every mercenary accent in the word is present: Irish, African, Russian, American… With military precision they make their way to a long abandoned bunker and go underground, shepherding their mysterious employer to his destination deeper and deeper through the jungle of old concrete and narrow walls festooned with rusty pipes and ancient cobwebs.
And oh look, Nazi zombies.
This time around it’s not teenage fun and games like Dod Sno, or kitchy malevolence like Shock Waves. Outpost delivers the hard core zombie goods. Evil apparitions appear regularly as well, making the film a little difficult to classify. Mostly, it’s a seriously nasty string of cruel, bloody deaths leavened by dark corridors filled with malicious Nazi ghosts. The film moves slowly but relentlessly toward a climax that packs quite a punch. There are few nods to zombie movie standards. Social media is an ancient film projector and social commentary is “Nazis bad”. The required pseudo-science is well told, anchored (yet again) in the well-known Nazi love of the occult, and easily believable. They even reference at one point The Philadelphia Experiment, which was made into a lame movie in the 80s and should be revisited now that there are movie special effects. There are two sequels that I have not seen, Outpost: Black Sun and Outpost III: Rise of the Spetsnaz. Both of them look pretty bad.
The major creative players are Scottish and principle photography was in the Glasgow area. I’m assuming, based on my one previous encounter with a Scottish zombie movie that this is why there is no color, not even the blood, and the extreme grim nature of the movie. The characters are all HARD men. They talk tough, are old hands with weaponry and tactics and have not an ounce of softness in them, aka compassion or empathy. This makes it impossible to sympathize with them through their terror and horrible demises, which is why it’s a good thing the filmmakers ratcheted up the suspense and nastiness.
Outpost is a well-balanced movie with plenty of evil, great sets, wonderful lighting and decent acting. The music seemed a little borrowed, but nothing obvious. Overall, I recommend it. Though not a classic, all the bases are covered and you will have a gory good time.
LINKS:
Outpost 2008 Trailer
CFR: In Addition: Wait? They kill Nazi Zombies? I so gotta watch this!
Chick Flicking Reviews 