They're Outside

There are already quite a lot of found footage movies based on the premise that a social media personality undertakes a particular project, so in order for a new film which uses this premise to set itself apart, the project has to incorporate some innovative idea.

THEY'RE OUTSIDE does that: a youtuber with a channel called "Psychology Inside Out" who documents his efforts to help people with various mental issues sets himself the challenge of helping a woman who suffers from agoraphobia (often called a "fear from open spaces" but more accurately a fear from situations from which it is difficult to escape, which, of course, can include open spaces). She has not consciously set foot outside of her house in five years, for fear of a local legend called Green Eyes.

The film actually provides a 5 minute prologue which explains this legend; suffice it to say that according to it, those cursed by Green Eyes first hear a knock on the door, then get lost in endless woods, and finally find the so called "Green House" which bodes very ill for them. The woman is afraid of leaving her house because she thinks she has heard the knock and fears getting lost in the woods surrounding her home.

I was unable to verify whether this is an actual local legend or just made up for the movie. There is an English Folk Custom called "Jack in the Green", but it seems to be something different, though the movie contains scenes which evidently depict it.

One thing the movie does well is that as events proceed, we learn new and unexpected things about the main characters, and these become key plot points in the story. This brings a new perspective on them and helps keep audience interest.

The legend leaves little room for a gradual build-up of suspense, since already after hearing the knock it condemns a person to become lost forever, but the movie seems to get around this by applying it inconsistently. For example, early on, the youtuber seems to hear the knock but doesn't get lost. Be that as it may, there is a little bit of escalation, mainly due to the new things we learn about the characters in the course of the movie.

One thing that may turn some people off is that the youtuber treats those around him quite arrogantly, so much so that he essentially devolves into the pseudoskeptic caricature. As a reminder, when it comes to paranormal phenomena, a skeptic is someone who advocates no position but only attempts to evaluate evidence provided by those who advocate a position, whereas a pseudoskeptic is someone who says that they advocate no position but in reality advocates the position that all paranormal phenomena are bunk. In general, skeptics have done a rather poor job of calling out pseudoskeptics in their midst, and that is perhaps why the cliche tends to be common.

The youtuber's arrogance has to be regarded as a classic example of a tragic flaw, since he he intends well and genuinely tries to help the woman, yet the flaw ultimately leads to their disappearance (mentioned right at the start of the film, so not really a spoiler).

The acting in the film is well above average for found footage movies, as is the cinematography. Yet, despite all the things going for it, OUTSIDE could not excite me very much.

There are some things the characters do which are left unexplained (for example, what is the reason for the tree carvings and why was that activity not subject to the curse?) and the ending feels rather anticlimactic. I'm not sure whether this has anything to do with the subliminal shots of the ending throughout key scenes in the movie or not.

OUTSIDE tells a very different story from your average found footage movie, so I would expect that even among found footage fans, it will elicit mixed reactions. Probably, those who like folk horror or movies with a psychological emphasis are more likely to enjoy it.

I think the concept of this movie was interesting. An agoraphobic who can't leave her house has an actual supernatural reason to not leave her house. A psychologist bets he can get her out of her house in ten days. Things go bad very quickly. This all sounds fine and dandy, but then the man starts talking and never shuts up. Ever. The more he rambles on, the more I can't stand him. The agoraphobic barely moves or speaks, so I never did care about her. There are no scary moments in this movie. I do know this. Forget the ten days. I would have been out of that house in ten minutes just to get away from hearing the man drone on and on about how I should get out of that house. I gave it an extra star because the actor really made me dislike his character.

The best part of this movie is the acting. I really think that the two leads did a great job with their characters. They were interesting to watch and they were both very vivid, in different ways. I wasn't thrilled with the artificial romance, but otherwise the characters were good.

The story was good. Not great, but good. The villain was new and fit the story. There were not a lot of scares in this, but it was fun to watch and much better than I expected.

I first saw this film at Fright Fest and have watched it a few more time since and really enjoy it, its a great original take on the found footage genre of films and the supernatural aspect of the film could definitely be expanded on. The ending is very good, as a package this film is very well thought out and mixes folk legend myths with agoraphobia in a well polished indie horror and suspence production. The characters are believable and the dialogue is good, the way the story progresses is great and tension builds as the film progresses, this is certainly one of the best indie found footage movies to release in recent years and definitely worth a watch.

One thing that is a positive here is how annoying the main male character here. Good job on how he acted that he made me want to choke him through the screen. Anyway I stuck to the end coz I want to see him suffer a lil bit but nah film didn't gave me that. A just right tubi tv find again lol.