OUTPOST: BLACK SUN (2012) Review

Directed by: Steve Barker

Starring: Catherine Steadman, Richard Coyle, Clive Russell

I was more than a little disappointed with the first OUTPOST, mainly due to a lot of inconsistencies regarding the Nazi ghost/zombie/super soldiers. I was hoping these problems would be addressed in this sequel but unfortunately they weren't.

Helena (Steadman) is a Nazi hunter to put it simply. She has made it her duty to track down and kill elderly Nazi war criminals who have run and hidden under assumed names. While on a mission to track down a particularly elusive target named Klausener she becomes caught up in a much larger situation. She runs into an acquaintance named Wallace (Coyle) who is looking for a machine built by Klausener. If you've seen the first film then you'll know exactly which machine I'm talking about. If you haven't however then all you need to know is that this machine has the power to create an unstoppable army of Nazi supersoldiers. In other words it's not a very nice machine. Helena and Wallace travel to a bunker where the machine is supposed to be located and run into a group of soldiers who coincidentally are also looking for said machine. Soon they find themselves under attack from these Nazi supersoldiers and desperately need to find the machine and put a stop to it once and for all.

As I mentioned, my biggest gripe with the original OUTPOST was the inconsistencies regarding the enemies. At the beginning they were super stealthy and could teleport through locked doors etc. Then they started for some reason to get really sloppy, setting off tripwires etc. In this sequel I actually found them to be even worse. Instead of being the silent supersoldiers they started off as, they now shamble around making the cliche zombie noises and they don't really try to be stealthy at all. Also they seem to be much easier to kill in this sequel.

On a much more pleasant note, the movie at least does a good job of creating a nice dark, unsettling and claustrophobic atmosphere within the underground bunker. The acting is decent as well but when it comes to the writing I was once again disappointed. It seems that there are too many sub-plots which are merely mentioned and never followed up on. It's as though they tried to cram too much into the movie instead of just focusing on what's important. The tension which the first film had has not been successfully carried over into this sequel and there were only really a few exciting moments. If you loved the original then this is worth a watch but don't expect too much from it.