Director Steve Barker helms this latest war-revolved tale of horror. Following past British movies mixing the horrors of war with the world of the paranormal, much like ‘The Bunker’ and ‘Deathwatch’, ‘Outpost’ may be trying to push a little above it’s own weight.
The movie centers on a mish-mash team of tired and well battle worn mercenaries all bought together in Eastern Europe to help protect an English businessman. The mystery man is searching for something which turns up in an abandoned Nazi bunker. It turns out those pesky Nazis have been carrying out a series of brutal and ultimately bloody experiments on their own soldiers.
The characters in ‘Outpost’ are a little more varied and interesting compared to some war ensembles of past. We’re faced with a variety of soldiers from different backgrounds and that have ultimately fought in different conflicts and each have their own personality and attitude because of this. The overall detail to the look and characterisations of each member of the team helps greatly to give them an identity and so as a viewer you aren’t lost with soliders blending into one another.
The team soon find themselves under a resurgence from a strange and ghost-like army of Nazi soldiers and are soon being stalked and cut back in numbers.
‘Outpost’ has a great deal of potential. It’s enclosed and claustrophobic-inducing environment helps to aid the underlying fear for the soldiers and the the audience. However, that sheer potential never really feels like it gets going. It takes a long time to come and never really turns it all the way to 11.
OVERALL SUMMARY
The Nazi solid-apparitions are genuinely creepy and the lighting effects to create this slightly faceless menace is very well achieved on what little budget the picture had. But sadly the scares are few and far between and it all ends up feeling more like an extended Twilight Zone episode than an actual horrorcoaster movie ride. I truly hope Barker and writer Rae Brunton work together again in the future as there was a decent effort here and some solid capacity for development.
