Frightfest Day Three: Outpost – Black Sun

Outpost (2008) seemed to be pretty much a reasonable success. The plot was clear-cut, the action was good and what is scarier than zombies who are also WWII Nazis – nothing I hear you cry. However, director Steve Barker has insisted on creating Outpost II: Black Sun (2012) even though a sequel is often the recipe for ruining a good reputation with a film of this genre. 

Maybe I was disappointed from the outset but I couldn’t see a reason for another Outpost. The shock and terror in creating Nazi Zombies has been broached therefore the audience knows what to expect. They have not become any scarier besides multiplying in numbers a bit more.

Towards the end of the Second World War, German scientist Klausener (David Gant) is shown working on the creation of a Nazi army of zombie super-soldiers. Jump forward to the modern day and a feisty young investigator called Lena (Catherine Steadman) is searching for the infamous war-criminal Klausener, whom she believes may still be alive. By chance, she finds herself in the same area of Eastern Europe as Wallace (Richard Coyle), a man who has also been on the trail of Nazi war criminals for years.

He reluctantly joins forces with Lena- unsure of whether the girl can hack the dangerous outpost zone. They venture into no-man’s land to find an army of living-dead Nazis who have been created ready to unleash on the unsuspecting world. They end up finding more unlikely comrades in the shape of a team of soldier’s sent by the Army to combat the outbreak of ruthless, almost invincible zombies.

The zombies are run off, and kept alive by, a power room that creates an electric field rendering cars and guns etc as inactive. The heroes do eventually find this room, which is when things become a little ridiculous. Throw in a small cackling witch woman and it becomes altogether bizarre.

Its pretty fast-paced but is actually a little boring. Like I said at the beginning the audience knows roughly what to expect, so with its predictability and lack of actual scenes of terror, watching Outpost II becomes a bit of a snore-fest.

The non-zombie characters are always squabbling and engaging in a battle of wills whilst shooting aimlessly at the zombie guys but there is no real tension.

An easy watch and probably a must-see if you are a fan of the first, I’m just saddened to hear that a third film is in production…