Review of Outpost (2008) by Roy B — 12 Apr 2010

What could be better than a zombie film? Answer: a film where the zombies happen to be Nazi soldiers brought back to life to wreak havoc on anyone who strays into their old stomping ground.

Starting off in an unnamed Eastern European country, in the middle of a civil war, a bunch of mercenaries are hired to get a â??surveyorâ?? into the warzone to retrieve something buried there. What they come across is an abandoned bunker used by the SS during WWII to perform experiments on their own soldiers to give them super powers and make them immune to attack. And this is where the problems set in â?? as not all of the SS experiments failed.

A low budget film shot on location in bonny Scotland the bulk of the film is concerned with the set up, with the zombies only popping up in the final reel. The grainy washed out photography adds to the feeling of gloom with all the action taking place in cold and wet conditions as the protagonists trudge through mud or explore dank concrete corridors in the bunker.

The middle third plays out much more like a Japanese ghost film, as fleeting images appear behind the soldiers as they pick their way through dark tunnels and the tense atmosphere develops as one by one they are picked off by their unseen foes.

By comparison the final attack is somewhat of a letdown â?? the lack of budget means the zombies are kept largely out of focus or in the distance and thereâ??s little for real gore hounds to get excited about. So without much in the way of traditional zombie action it becomes a protracted one-sided gunfight as the remaining soldiers flee deeper into the bunker.

Worth a watch, especially if youâ??re a Nazi-zombie fan (and who isnâ??t?) but it doesnâ??t really break much new ground in the genre.