THE DEAD TIMES
DEAD ARE COMING...
The Outpost Franchise: Nazi Zombie Gold
The Outpost franchise started with the release of the first movie, Outpost, back in 2008 and consists of that original movie and its two sequels; Outpost II: Black Sun and Outpost III: Rise of the Spetsnaz (actually a prequel to the first film, but more on that later). Essentially, without giving away any spoilers, the plot of all three films centres around a Nazi World War II bunker and the experiments they did within that bunker. Naturally, you can guess, with this being a Zombie website, that those experiments resulted in the creation of Zombies and, on the surface, you'd be right. However, things go a little deeper as these monsters, while definitely appearing as undead ghouls wearing Nazi uniforms, are not what I would consider a true Zombie. They are more like 'ghost Zombies' as they appear to be able to pop-up anywhere, though are actual physical creatures capable of interacting with the world and, most importantly for a horror franchise, are able to kill the living with ease. This whole 'ghost Zombies' thing is a bit confusing but it has been seen before in, the Italian movie from the 1980s, City of the Living Dead - though, unlike that film, there is a semi-believable reason given in this franchise.
The first movie explains that, within the shielded walls of the bunker, the Nazis built a machine capable of creating and manipulating a "unified physics field" (a very real phenomenon in Unified Physics Theory, a theory which allows all fundamental forces and elementary particles to be written in terms of a pair of interacting fields; a physical one and a virtual one). The rest of it is, understandably, a bit "wishy-washy". There is a small cube-like room above the Unified Physics Field (UPF) machine called "the chamber". Anyone in this room is, somehow, 'morphed' so they can move between the physical realm and virtual realm at will - it's never actually made clear that this is what made these Nazis effectively undead super-soldiers capable of travelling between the two realms but, that is the best theory I can come up with. Oh, and they become immortal and look like Zombies for some reason - all green/gray skinned with damaged flesh (probably because it just makes the movie infinitely creepier and, for a horror movie, more appealing). However, despite appearances, these are not typical Zombies; they do not crave flesh, they do not moan (they cannot talk either), they can run, they have impeccable dress-sense, sporting trendy black, leather trench coats, they use tools such as knives (I really enjoy seeing the sheer brutality of these things as they plunge a knife into the living over and over, as if they cannot quite grasp the truth that not all humans are as tough to kill as they are), they have no problems with agility and have some basic intelligence, being able to tell friend from foe and even following orders given to them by a leader.
The mercenaries are here to kick ass an chew bubble gum... and they're all out of gum
The first movie, like all trilogies with 'hole-filled' mechanics, just establishes the Nazi Zombie goons, putting them up against modern-day, privately-owned and underfunded mercenaries. It's a commendable movie, some would argue it's the best of the bunch, filling its runtime with action, tension and a hint of mystery. I consider it a very 'Dog Soldiers' type movie; it is low budget, at a meagre £200,000, but because of the rapid punches and coolness of its characters, enemies and setting, you never really feel like you are watching low-budget horror. The characters are like-able and seeing them argue about their dire situation or do their best to perform tactical movements is mesmerising. What stands out to me though is the set design and filming locations; the wide-open forest with extremely tall trees, casting shade, and the leaf-littered, barren ground give the introduction an almost claustrophobic feel, brilliantly matching the even tighter space provided by the cold, underground bunker in later sections. The actual bunker itself is also mind-blowing, full of purely-functional, harsh corridors and rooms, metal pipes jutting out at improbable locations and doors which are more like hinged metal slabs - this place was clearly built quickly and with one simple purpose, there is no comfort to be found here and, after its purpose was complete, no one should have ever set foot in it again. The ending of the film is, in my mind, perfection; you feel like the film has answered the majority of the questions it raised, there is a suitable climatic battle and, while there are some bits that hint at a potential sequel, you feel that if one never happened, you are satisfied with what you got. After receiving favourable reviews from critics, however, and movie-fans who managed to catch the film in its limited theatrical run, there would be a sequel.
The second movie ramps things up substantially, having a significantly bigger budget, though eventually being a direct-to-DVD affair. The environments are bigger, the scope is bigger and the plot is more concrete (though still a bit flimsy). The movie opens with a girl visiting a man she claims to be her uncle in an old people's home. It turns out of course, that the woman is not the man's niece but a person hunting down Nazi war-criminals who managed to escape justice. However, this is no ordinary war-criminal as he is a member of a secretive Nazi project known as "Black Sun" - later discovered to be the Nazi plan to continue the Third Reich with the Nazi Zombies and Unified Physics Field machine of the first film. It's also learned that the machine now generates a field of elctro-magnetic energy which acts as a boundary, containing the Nazi Zombies within it; in the first film, the evil undead Nazis were limited to just the bunker and surrounding area but now, for some unknown reason (which I'll get into later), the field is growing at an exponential rate, allowing the re-animated Third Reich another go at conquering the world, if not stopped. Oh, and I mentioned that the Zombies from the first film cannot be killed - well, they still can't be but, after detonating an EMP (Electro Magnetic Pulse) device, they apparently can be… it's a bit weird as the film states that the EMP is too short range to affect the machine, which the first film established, and this film reiterates, is what is keeping them "alive". Further strangeness stems from the end part of the movie when we discover the extra part fuelling the UPF machine's expanding field is the, still-alive, body of the physicist from the first movie… the film just glosses over this as though it is obvious. And, he can now shoot lightning out of his fingertips like Emperor Palpatine in Star Wars, which just looks extremely silly and honestly, is probably the main reason for this sequels mixed reviews. I do, despite its short-comings, really enjoy watching the sequel though - it takes the premise of the first movie and expands upon it without getting bogged down in trying to explain every mystery. I really enjoy the opening scenes with the sounds of war and the depiction of the undead Nazis conquering surrounding villages, really laying into anyone that opposes them in their signature brutal fashion, using, for example, their old, now-useless stick hand-grenades (Stielhandgranate) as clubs, beating people to death with them. There are some hints at a sequel with a twist ending and an interesting titbit that the Nazi Zombies are trying to make more like themselves by injecting the living with some sort of black goo. Still no sequel would come as the director behind the first two instalments exited the project. A third movie, a prequel, would be made, and released a year later, though, as you can probably tell from the introduction to this article, it's downhill from here.
The third movie sees a group of Russian special forces soldiers ambushing a Nazi German convoy on-route to the bunker, containing what appears to be documents pertaining to the operation of the bunker (I've never really understood why the convoy carrying the documents was going towards the bunker and not away from it but, it's all irrelevant anyway as, other than getting the Russian soldiers captured and imprisoned in the bunker, it is pretty much ignored by the entire rest of the movie). There is also a guard Nazi unit, patrolling the exterior of the bunker with a more-typical, flesh-eating, sprinter Zombie kept on a leash. There is no explanation as to where this guy came from, why there is only one actual Zombie in this movie when all the others are effectively undead Nazi super-soldiers or why this flesh-hungry Zombie does not turn on his captors, even when let off the leash. The silliness of the movie continues as the Russian prisoners from before are forced to fight one of the undead super-soldiers in hand-to-hand combat for no real reason as far as I can tell. This undead super-soldier is definitely not one of the unkillable monstrosities from the first two films though, I think he is meant to be, but he is beaten by the unarmed Russians without too much bother and he just does not 'look' as cool or as scary, sporting a normal Nazi-uniform with its sleeves ripped off to show his daunting muscles. To be honest, the rest of the film never really picks up from this point; the Russians fight through the bunker, killing Nazi soldiers in a bid to escape. It's entertaining and offers non-faultable World War II action, don't get me wrong but you never see the part you want to see from this prequel; how the undead super-soldier Zombies were actually made in the first place. In fact, there are very few of the staple undead Nazi super-soldier Zombies which made the franchise popular leaving me wondering why this film exists at all. That lone sprinter Zombie from the start of the movie does appear at the end, being carried off by the single surviving Russian and effective 'hero' of the story, presumably to show the people in power just what the evil Nazi regime is capable of, but again, the film does not make it clear if this is actually his intention or, in a closing section showing he survived the war, give any indication that people now know that Zombies exist.
Undead Nazi Super-Soldiers that look like Zombies - that's the stuff dreams are made of
In conclusion then, the Outpost franchise never really made it big, never shook up the Zombie world in the same way the media spanning Resident Evil franchise did, although, perhaps given the low-budget upbringings of the franchise, that is an unfair comparison. It's also true that it does not actually involve 'proper' Zombies - the ones of Romero creation, the ones that bite and gnaw. In fact, Amazon Prime does not even list the first movie as being in the 'Horror' genre at all which is extremely surprising given it's 18 rating. Still, despite these things I whole-heartedly enjoy the Outpost franchise (the third movie, less so but it is not without merit) and would recommend it for a bloody good time. The first two instalments are, in my mind, the best Nazi Zombie movies ever produced, even eclipsing the higher-budget, much more comedic Dead Snow movies.
DESCRIPTION:
Back in 2008 a Nazi Zombie movie, made on a miniscule budget, was released and is, to this day, my favourite Nazi Zombie movie of all time but, for some strange reason, hardly anyone knows about it, even after it spawned two sequels. This devasting lack of understanding needs rectified for the good of mankind. Buckle up readers, it is time to revisit the Outpost franchise...
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DATE UPLOADED:
07/04/2024