Horror film fans are used to seeing films that sound great on the back of the DVD case but turn out to be hugely disappointing. That makes finding those little diamonds in the rough that much more satisfying. Outpost fits into this category. It’s a direct to DVD film that I came across without any fanfare and was pleasantly surprised. It’s a small budget to be sure but done with enough skill that you never notice.
Ray Stevenson plays “DC” the leader of a team of multi-national mercenaries. The team is hired to escort a businessman on a surveying expedition into a dangerous, war-torn part of some unnamed East European country. The diverse mercenary team includes members from all over the world. DC is British, Prior (Richard Brake) is American, Taktarov is Russian, Cotter is Russian, etc…Hunt takes them into a remote wilderness era where they reach their goal, a long abandoned Nazi underground outpost.
Inside they find several dead bodies and one survivor who is in a catatonic state. Hunt reveals his true mission to DC. This outpost was used for a secret Nazi experiment. A machine was created that could warp space and time and transport soldiers across great distances and also make them invulnerable. Hunt has come to locate the machine for his employers. His activation of the machine brings dire consequences for the team, however. The long-thought dead Nazi soldiers who manned the bunker were in reality caught in a sort of suspended animation time anomaly. The catatonic survivor turns out to be the former Nazi commanding officer and even when Prior puts a bullet in his skull he doesn’t die. Are his troop’s ghosts? Zombies? Whatever they are, they’ve come to reclaim their outpost and bullets are useless against them. DC and his men have to put up enough resistance to allow Hunt to figure out how to use the Nazi machine to send them back to Hell or wherever it is they came from.
When I first picked up Outpost I figured it was just an action film and in many ways it is. It combines military action with horror and does it exceedingly well. The performances of all of the soldiers are quite good, especially Stevenson. Best known for his role in the TV series “Rome”, Stevenson has been tapped to play Frank Castle, The Punisher in the next film in that series. All the men do a good job of conveying the stress and terror of their situation. They are trapped in the bunker, surrounded by woods filled with spectral soldiers. The bunker itself is dark and creepy, particularly the room where the dead bodies are located. The special effects are slight but they do the job. The commanding Nazi Officer, his face ashen and gaunt, exudes evil.
There are a few plot holes such as just how the commanding officer was still alive in physical form but this is such an effective little horror that you can overlook some minor glitches. There’s not much in the way of extras although the DVD does come with some deleted scenes.
As soon as I heard about this film I couldn’t wait to see it, zombie nazi horror – what more could you ask for!? ;)
And I wasn’t disappointed, even if as you say there are a few ‘holes’ but even with that we still gave it a 4 star review: https://fear-theatre.com/2008/05/outpost/
But we might have been a little bias being from Scotland et al, but its nice sometimes to see that even a tiny place like here can make a great film! Now if only they had bothered to market it properly more people might have seen it :(
The concept is interesting, nazi zombies and maybe a theme that naziesque hatred just won't die/the ghosts of nazism still walk amogst us. The movie lost alot of realism (and in my mind scariness) due to the sloppiness of the "crack team". The sarge gave no breifing on the mission and the employer provided no tactical photos or info on the objective (for 4000 bucks a man i guess you would get a equally shoddy team-that was real at least)the civilian is not breifed or rehearsed (or dressed) in accordance with the teams SOPs. They are dropped at the objective noisily then suddenly go tactical then the radio goes nuts and compromises their position (why are they using a radio anyway? presumably someone else is keeping tabs on them but a mercenary team is going to call in what for support?maybe to call the truck to their RV?). They establish eyes on the objective but instead of observing for a few hours the team leader (after 2 minutes) calls the whole team team into the center of a bald ass depression(how hard would it be to wait in the bush in a patrol all around with eyes on to make sure no insurgents are using the bunker for a hideout then send a few men in under cover of darkness to inspect the bunker while the rest of the team covers?). When covering they look through their sights instead of over top of them which is dumb, but when firing they fire from the hip and dont look through the sights. Do mercenaries wear their old berets with cap badges in the field? I think a soldier with any pride in their old units would not wear their old cap badges when conducting illegal operations (maybe they are just a weird team). Although the movie tries to establish they are a crack team in that they run everything SOP (i.e. no mission briefing) they do the basic training covering/ moving BS at the end. In the all around defense of the bunker they dig in in the center of the field instead of in the woods. Furthermore, the team leader has no control of the men who disobey his orders (constanly) and they are easily spooked. Several of the men constantly spread their bad morale. Oh and they should have aborted once one of the men were hit. Right there the team leader should have known they were compromised and a larger force was now aware of them. This is not a crack team. A little realism would have made this way scarier.
This movie is meant for guys who like war movies. Its a nice fun little second rate movie and soldiers will enjoy laughing at how crappy the crack team is (the movie does indicate they were once unstoppable but since seem to have grown fat off easy money and too much booze). Overall I give it 6/10 for the great story and the great scenery. It is definately better than the Micheal Douglas piece of crap called Soldier but not on par with platoon or full metal jacket or predator.
More on the radio-maybe their radio was being used to monitor the other forces in the area although most armies now encrypt transmissions but the insurgants likely can't afford that stuff. Or maybe their team radio works off the central unit but most earpiece types need only a small device especially for a force operating in close proximity. They must have just had it on hand to call the truck
I guess realism goes out the window when considering the movie is about invincible ghost Nazis. OUT.
I think the movie was great, but yes, it leaves at the end lots of room for more making. I wonder though, if it was based on any true stories or causes or events or even facts. It talks about the 4 forces that rule the universe and we also are aware on how the nazis wanted to conquer and ruled the world so I wonder if in fact he tried to do any of those experiments like philadelphia to his soldiers or to his own people or even to the making of the machine that had to do with the connection to the 4 forces of the universe to control or to detain the forces of the soldiers.