Outpost

If you ever played the famous game (PC and console) Wolfenstein, you will love this movies.

I like too much stories mixing horror and ominous Nazi scientific experiments. It's a very interesting and prolific genre. Sometimes you get some very poor stories, but it's not the case of this one. It's simple, it's plain and it's interesting with a nice mix of suspense, horror and action.

I like the way the actors played the characters, they are very realistic. Production is also very nice, no CGI at all, but only the good old way of creating weird and dark places.

If you want to see a cool mystery/horror movies with no fuzzy plot, this is the one. I recommend.

I had no expectations when I started watching this movie. I had some time on my hands and it seemed decent enough to kill some time with. I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised.

The idea around the movie isn't all that unique but it delivers it with an atmosphere and style that is nothing short of wonderful. The acting in this little gem is top notch. The setting itself enhances the story and events that take place, and with minimal special fx I might add. I am somewhat of a veteran to the chiller movie genre, but this one did send a shiver or two down my spine. Nice to see something that can provoke a reaction without relying heavily on gore.

All around I would say that it is well worth watching.

Us Brits have got reasonably good at producing limited budget scary flicks like this where a group of armed protagonists are stuck in an isolated location and have to fight supernatural forces (Dog Soldiers, The Descent, Deathwatch). I enjoyed most of this movie. It only started to get ridiculous towards the end. Anyone who gets the twists in movies easily will have the entire film sussed in the first twenty minutes, and anyone who doesn't might be pleasantly surprised by it. Either way it makes it difficult to comment directly without spoiling it.

However I can say this. A rag tag group of mercenaries are hired on false pretences to accompany and protect a scientist in search of something in an abandoned bunker in Eastern Europe. We get to this point fairly quickly without a laborious preamble. Once there, strange things begin to happen and the soldiers begin to get picked off. There is a reason for these goings on, and to start with it is handled quite well but the writer/director messed up big time by not exploring it more and because early on walls and doors are no obstacle to the enemy, and claymores and trip wires remain untriggered. The enemy does not do what they want it to, it cannot be predicted and comes an goes in small groups. However in the climax the walls and doors are an obstacle and suddenly the enemy is very helpful in it's own possible demise, setting off claymores and tripwires and coming at them en masse and predictably.

Additionally I would very much like to have seen more exploration of why these things were happening and the motivation of the enemy. But alas there isn't and in the final act it just becomes silly, their actions show they have an agenda but earlier on it was explained that they were just doing what they knew.

Because of budget limitations there are very few special effects but be clear this isn't a 'low budget' film with all the negatives that go with that label. what is done is done well, it's very atmospheric, and the lighting and cinematography is very good. The actors all put in decent performances, there's a couple of good lines, one very iconistic shot with a flag (you'll know when you see it) and some good gruesome deaths.

All told this is quite a good movie given it's limitations, but what a shame the story gets silly in the final act. I came away having enjoyed it but for once in my life wishing it had had some big US money behind it.

Worth watching. Not as good as Dog Soldiers, or The Descent but better than Deathwatch and The Cave.

Although the idea of this movie is not entirely new (similar plot lines can be found in older movies like "Shockwave" from 1976 and computer games like the "Castle Wolfenstein" series) it is still rather original and appealing: Nazi scientists attempt to create indestructible "super soldiers" in order to achieve world domination.

The acting is very good.

The movie's special effects are also well realised and a certain amount of suspense is undeniable, especially at the beginning of the movie.

However, there were some inconsistencies that ruined the movie for me.

Firstly, the explanation given in the movie about why the paranormal phenomenons happen is incomprehensible. I would have preferred no explanation at all than a badly researched pseudo-scientific one involving some obscure Einsteinian theory. It makes it impossible to understand what the scientist is actually after the whole time.

Secondly the director seems to bend and adapt the "powers" of the undead at will, making them devoid of any credibility. Sometimes they materialise in sealed rooms and attack with great speed and deadly accuracy but in the next scene they stumble around like brainless zombies and can't even open doors. This fails to create the feeling of the main characters actually being stalked and hunted in a claustrophobic environment. I did not get a feeling of urgency and even felt a little bored at some point.

This movie disappointed me because I believe a chance has been missed to make something truly creepy and scary.

If you are just looking for gore and horror, however, you might still want to watch this movie. I would not actively recommend it though.

Eastern Europe , present day . A regular team is hired by a retainer (Julian Wadham ) to a company that acquired some real state there . They must go a place where every couple of months it witches between government and insurgent hands . The leader is a tough mercenary (Ray Stevenson ) . He'll operate six-man fire team , the money is six thousand US per man , cash , payable only on the safe return . Equipment (Richard Brake , Michael Smiley, Frost , Blair , among others ) will run to another five , up front. Then the regular army has positions to the south and insurgent to the north UN safe area is southwest . Then they encounter a German bunker plenty of relics where happen weird events. The group meets a pale man and they reckon the locals used this location for a little bit of the ethnic cleansing and they moved on . It was like a slaughterhouse down there . Then the employer communicates : ¨ On site , item located . Take all necessary steps ¨. Later on ,they encounter a machine which could be the Holy Grial of physics , there are four faces that control matter , the key has been trying to find how those forces interact . If they can do that , then they can explain the behaviour of all the substance in the universe. Einstein coined a phrase ¨ unified field theory ¨. Many people thought he was close to finding a solution . But when he saw the atomic bomb test at Trinity , he abandoned the research and destroyed his notes . Nobody has even come close to finding a solution since . Then the Nazis were working on the same thing , a machine designed to manipulate an unified field and the chamber above it where they found the bodies was built to control the resultant energy , contain it . As the Germans were trying to win a war . But with this technology , its application and impact in the modern world would be limitless and probably priceless . After that , they watch some Nazi footage as : the Third Reich was renowned for dabbling with the occult . Fantasy blending with scientific research , the ¨Field Theory¨ would have been perfect for them . An equation that could bend space and time , potentially alter reality . They were running some kind of trials on these soldiers . Exposing them to the energy harnessed in that chamber above , they were trying to enhance the men . Theoretically , the human body could become fused , disappear , interwoven with the magnetic fields themselves . The American tried something similar in 1943 . An attempt was to render a warship the USS Eldridge , invisible , using Einstein's theories , ¨The Philadelphia Experiment ¨ . Urban myth has it they were partially successful . The Nazis were attempting something similar , maybe even more ambitious . A soldier that was invulnerable and unstoppable . An army that could travel thousand of miles and nobody would be any the wiser until it materialised at the gates of the White House .

This exciting movie displays thrills , chills , warfare action and lots of blood and gore . Well played by Ray Stevenson as tough commandant , he is doing an interesting career in strong roles as Rome and Punisher 2 . Dark cinematography by Struthers and suspenseful musical score by James Seymour . The flick is professionally written and directed by Steve Barker in his only film and he is preparing the second part . Rating : Good . Nice thrilling movie full of action and violence.