Outpost
(Sony Region 1 NTSC DVD)
(2007)
review by Head Cheeze

Nazis make great villains. From motion pictures to comic books and videogames, there’s nothing more pleasing than seeing the Nazis get their asses handed to them by the good guy. Seriously, what could be more evil, more depraved, and more downright despicable than filthy Nazis? Filthy undead Nazis, that’s what!

An international group of mercenaries are hired to escort a physicist named Hunt (Julian Wadham) to an isolated outpost in war torn Eastern Europe. When the group arrives at the bunker, they discover it once served as an experimental facility for the Nazis. They also discover a roomful of fresh cadavers, and one not-so-dead body they assume have been left behind by one of the region’s warring factions. When night falls, however, the troops are besieged by a mysterious enemy bent on preserving the secret of the outpost. When merc leader DC (“Rome” star, Ray Stevenson) pushes Wadham for answers, the man explains that the outpost houses a machine that the Nazis believed could very well bend the laws of physics, allowing them to send indestructible troops anywhere in the world in the blink of an eye. When it becomes clear that the forces outside protecting the machine are remnants of this experiment, DC and his group of hardened veterans must battle an enemy like none they’ve ever faced.

Outpost borrows from a lot of films – “Dog Soldiers”, “Shock Waves”, and even “Session 9” spring to mind – and fuses them together with some flimsy science and nods to the occult. The result is a mildly pleasant cocktail of b-movie clichés buoyed by solid performances by Stevenson, Wadham, and Welsh actor, Richard Brake (whose redneck American mercenary, Prior, is an appropriately southern fried badass), and the oppressive atmospherics of Gavin Struthers’ lush cinematography. While director Steve Barker’s much-too-deliberate pacing may induce more yawns than shivers, Outpost is still refreshingly different enough to serve as a welcome respite from current DTV horror trends.

The DVD from Sony is a sadly under stocked affair, with a few deleted scenes and trailers for other Sony releases serving as the only extras here.