Filthy Review - 'Outpost: Black Sun'

Outpost: Black Sun (2012)

Review by Jude Felton

The first Outpost movie, from 2007, was a decent, if flawed, movie about a group of soldiers that discover an old bunker from WWII, only to find themselves knee-deep in Nazi-zombies. It wasn’t spectacular in terms of its execution, although in my opinion it was a good start-off point which would hopefully be expanded on in a sequel. Well, the sequel is now upon us in Black Sun and I was curious as to where director and co-writer Steve Barker would take the story.

Outpost was set almost entirely within the confines of the bunker, and surrounding area, but in Black Sun the story has been fleshed out a whole lot more, taking the returning Nazi undead and placing them not only in the bunker itself, but also in the midst of an Eastern European warzone.

The central plot though follows Lena, a young lady who is following in her father’s footsteps by being a Nazi hunter. This takes her to Eastern Europe in search of Klausner, the Nazi from Outcast, who is also responsible for creating an army of re-animated zombies. Along the way she teams up with Wallace, an American engineer, who looks all set to aid her in her mission. Throw into the mix a platoon of charming soldiers, as potential zombie fodder, and you have the basic plot. It’s relatively straight-forward, although there is a little too more going on in the early stages.

What you do get though is plenty of mayhem and violence, without being especially gory, all told at a decent pace. The emphasis this time out though definitely appears to be the story, rather than being overly reliant on the zombies, which works both for and against Black Sun. Part of me wanted more full-on undead carnage, but I also realized that this will only take a film so far.

On a technical and visual level Black Sun is quite accomplished, looking far better than its budget should probably allow. Only on the odd occasion did I feel let down by the use of some average CGI. This is a minor complaint in an otherwise solid looking piece of escapism.

Included on the Blu-ray/DVD combo pack is a short ‘making of’ feature, where Barker and some of the other cast and crew talk about the creative process behind the film. Although relatively short is was quite informative and makes for interesting viewing. Outpost: Black Sun is also the first release on XLrator Media’s Screamfest imprint, and is good start-off point for the label.

Outpost: Black Sun isn’t a perfect movie, but it is entertaining and fans of the first film will get a kick out of it. Also, the ending of Black Sun leaves it open for a third movie, should they decide to make one, and if the makers can combine the elements of the first two films that do work, whilst eliminating those that don’t, they could be on to a cracking good yarn. 

Outpost: Black Sun is released on Blu-ray/DVD combo pack and DVD by XLrator Media on November 6th.