Outpost: Black Sun was recently released on Blu-ray and DVD through XLrator Media's Screamfest imprint. You can read my review of the Nazi undead flick here. I also had the chance to ask director Steve Barker a few questions about Black Sun, British horror and more. Read on to see what he had to say!
- Lair of Filth - Congrats
on Outpost: Black Sun hitting the US today! It has been available in the UK
since August. How has the response been back across the pond, so far?
Steve Barker – I’ve got to admit I’m not really
one for reading reviews for my own stuff. I think I’m worried that I’ll just
end up either horribly depressed or hopelessly arrogant so I just avoid them.
But the first audience we screened it for at Frightfest in London seemed to
like it and from what I’ve heard the reviews are ok. I’ve also heard it’s doing
ok in terms of numbers so I think everybody is pretty happy with it.
- LoF - I
enjoyed the first movie, although I did feel there was more to be told, in
terms of the story. I thought at the time that there was plenty of scope to
expand the story, and this is what you have done with Black Sun. What were your
goals and plans for Black Sun from the very beginning?
SB - All the initial ideas came simply
from not wanting to repeat or rehash the first movie. The sequels I’ve always
admired are the ones that try and do something new, you do risk alienating your
original audience a little but I thought it was a risk worth taking here. In
the first film we tried to use mystery and suspense to steadily crank the
atmosphere through the first half of the picture and we could do that because
the movie was fresh and the audience wasn’t entirely sure what was coming.
Going into Black Sun my feeling was that if I simply tried to do that again it
would quickly become tedious because the audience had already seen what was
ultimately around the corner. So very early on we decided to shift genre
slightly and make this more of an action adventure movie that, like you
suggest, expanded the mythology a bit.Once we’d made that decision it became
about trying to introduce elements into the narrative that would force us keep
that promise to ourselves. So the character of Lena came from the fact that
there were no female characters and there were no civilians in the first movie.
Simply having her there was going to force us to write and shoot things
differently. Everything else pretty much grew from there.
- LoF - The
film is set primarily in ‘Eastern Europe’; what were the actual shooting
locations?
SB – Both movies were shot entirely in
Scotland, with Dumfries and Galloway being used for exteriors and interiors
being shot in Glasgow.
- LoF - How
was it there? Any problems you encountered?
SB - Well I live in
Glasgow and the vast majority of the creative team I try and work with on every
project are also based here so we weren’t faced with any of those ‘going away
to shoot’ issues. Scotland generally seems to be really welcoming to film crews
and certainly the various local authorities we had to deal with were great. Even
taking the unit away to Dumfries for the exteriors was ok since we’d learnt a
lot of lessons making the first movie. So I guess that the biggest problems
were either the ones you can’t foresee, like Scotland’s notoriously
unpredictable weather or the standard problem for any movie… that you never
have enough time or money.
-
- LoF - Zombies
and Nazi’s always seem to go hand in hand; kind of like the two ultimate
villains, if you like? In recent years we had the first Outpost movie, and also
Dead Snow (of which has a completely different tone), did you have any film
influences when coming up with the story? Klausner is almost Emperor-like (from
Return of the Jedi) in Black Sun, with maybe a little Raiders of the Lost Ark
thrown in?
-
SB – I know what you mean about Nazi
zombies suddenly becoming popular. When we did the first movie it was a bit of creative
goldmine since I don’t think anybody had done them since Shockwaves, but about
a year later there was Dead Snow (which I also thought was fabulous), as well
as the Call of Duty mini game which got really popular and suddenly Nazi ghouls
were popping up everywhere. However, once I knew that I was doing a sequel I
tried to avoid them for fear of being unduly influenced. I really like your
idea of Klausener being the emperor, but actually the big influence for him and
the other war criminal was actually ‘The Boy’s from Brazil’ and putting that
kind of set-up into a genre context. Oh, and you’re completely spot-on about
the influence of ‘Raiders’, particularly with the ending. Seeing ‘Raiders of
the Lost Ark’ at the age of maybe nine or ten was one of those genuinely defining
moments in me. I suddenly knew what I wanted to with my life and if I couldn’t
be the guy in the hat then I wanted to make the guy in the hat, so from the
moment we’d decided that we wanted to shift genres with this movie and do
something that was a bit more of an action/adventure flick then I think it was
inevitable that there’d be a big homage in there somewhere.
-
- LoF - What
kind of budget did you have for the film? Was there anything you wanted to
include, but couldn’t? I thought the look of Black Sun was very good
-
-
SB – Oh we had a very small budget,
certainly in comparison to the film’s ambitions in terms of scope and visuals.
The first movie was done for about 1 million pounds and Black Sun was made for a
fraction more, about 1.3 million pounds, so yeah, there were plenty of ideas
that went by the wayside, but in reality we always knew what the budgets were
so those ideas never really got fully developed. The moment we thought we were
heading down a path that meant an idea was out of our reach financially then
we’d stop and either rethink the concept or go in a totally different
direction. But I’m really proud of what we managed to put on screen for that
money. I don’t think they look like they cost so little and I think that’s
entirely down to the dedication and skill of the entire crew.
-
- LoF - British
cinema, in particular horror, has seen somewhat of a resurgence of late; not
just in terms of volume, but quality as well. When I left the UK thinks were
fairly quiet, now it seems there is a new film coming out every week. What are
your thoughts on British horror, and where you fit into it?
-
-
SB – I think it’s great that there’s
been a resurgence in British horror. I grew up just after the great Hammer era
had ended and for a long time nothing really replaced that, but over the last
ten years there’s been a really steady stream of excellent British genre films,
not just horror, that sit very comfortably with bigger movies from around the
world, be it Neil Marshall making ‘The Descent’, Edgar Wright doing ‘Shaun of
the Dead’ or Joe Cornish with ‘Attack the Block’ and I think that’s given
financiers a lot more confidence in British filmmakers. I’m really not sure
where I fit into all that since I’ve only made two very small films but I do
know that the general success of the British movies is starting to help all of
us.
-
- LoF - What’s
next in your plans? Will you be involved in the third Outpost movie (Rise of
the Spetnaz)? Directorial plans?
-
-
SB – I’ve not been involved in the
third movie, it was put together whilst I was still finishing Black Sun and to
be honest I think I was a little ‘zombied-out’ by then. However it’s been
directed by Kieran Parker who produced the first two and written by Rae Brunton
who wrote on the first two, so it’s been kept ‘in the family’ and I’m finally
going to be able to watch one of these films like a regular movie rather than
something I’m sweating or agonising over which is pretty exciting. As for me,
about a couple of months ago I finished the script for a neo-noir revenge flick
that’s got a hint of vampire in it and I’m currently on deadline for the first
draft of very dark thriller in the Silence of the Lambs mold. So Hopefully I’ll
get somewhere close to shooting one of those two next year.
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