Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		0.5
Overall		3.0

Outpost: Rise of the Spetsnaz Blu-ray Movie Review

Russians vs. Zombies

Reviewed by Michael Reuben March 23, 2014

"Nazis!" says Indiana Jones in The Last Crusade. "I hate these guys." In one line, the world's most beloved archaeologist summed up the utility of the Third Reich as an all-purpose villain. The Outpost series created by Scottish production company Black Camel Pictures spliced Nazis with zombies to create the creepy horror films Outpost and Outpost: Black Sun (the latter filled with witty visual riffs on the Indiana Jones franchise). Now Black Camel has returned with a third installment. In Outpost III, as it is known in Europe, Black Camel founder Kieran Parker has moved into the director's chair. Rae Brunton continues as screenwriter, although Parker contributed to the story, having originally conceived the series. Steve Barker, who directed and co-wrote both previous Outpost films, is nowhere to be found.

Outpost III represents a departure from the previous two films, which were set in the present, when a previously secret Nazi bunker is discovered in Eastern Europe and a device is triggered that awakens an army of unkillable zombie soldiers, the product of secret experiments designed to perpetuate the Third Reich beyond its apparent demise. Outpost III, by contrast, is set during the war, when those experiments were still being conducted and the device hasn't yet been perfected. Much of Outpost III plays like a demented P.O.W. tale, as the Germans experiment on a group of captured Russian soldiers. Those soldiers are among the most highly trained in Stalin's army, his "special forces" known as the Red Brigade a/k/a the Spetsnaz.

Except for brief scenes at the beginning and end, the time is March 1945, the waning days of World War II. A unit of the Red Brigade commanded by Dolokhov (Brian Larkin) has identified a Nazi base in Eastern Europe. Though nothing appears on the map, the steady stream of troops, supplies and armament indicates that something is there. Dolokhov and his men stake out the road to ambush the next convoy, unaware that they, too, have been spotted and are being hunted by a special unit of Nazi soldiers equipped with a new breed of "hound". He used to be a man.

In the ensuing firefight, retreat and pursuit, Dolokhov and several of his men are taken prisoner by Strasser (Michael McKell), the commander of the secret facility, who has the cheerfully superior demeanor of a true believer. (At times, McKell seems to be channeling Christoph Waltz's Oscar-winning performance as Col. Hans Landa in Inglourious Basterds.) Strasser is overseeing the scientists experimenting on both Nazi soldiers and P.O.W.s to discover the exact combination of drugs and electromagnetic radiation for creating the perfect soldier: strong, fearless, unkillable and obedient. They haven't yet found it—exploding heads are still a routine malfunction—but Strasser believes they are close.

As part of the process, Strasser pits Dolokhov and others against some of his test subjects in a kind of gladiatorial combat. This may seem like an impractical approach, but there's a thread of eugenics running through Strasser's dialogue in his desire to weed out weaker stock and keep only the strongest. He thinks Dolokhov might hold the key to finding test subjects who can survive the process of transformation. As a result, Dolokhov's sojourn in the secret facility confronts him with ever more grotesquely deformed products of Strasser's experiments, as he keeps battling forward, always looking for an opportunity to escape.

As is so often the case in zombie films, the controls put in place to contain the threat prove inadequate, and the monsters escape their cages. As chaos descends upon the secret bunker, one is left to wonder just how it was restored to the relative state of order in which it was discovered in the first two Outpost films. But perhaps that is a question for another day (and film).

Outpost: Rise of the Spetsnaz Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Each of the Outpost films has had a different cinematographer. Outpost III was shot by Carlos De Carvalho, a veteran cameraman and focus puller for over twenty years on major studio films. Definitive information about the shooting format was not available, but the appearance indicates digital photography, probably with the Arri Alexa, as was the case on Outpost: Black Sun. Xlrator Media's 1080p, AVC-encoded Blu-ray was presumably sourced from digital files.

Outpost III has a different visual style from its immediate predecessor. Probably because it is set in the past, its palette is more monochromatic and desaturated, and its general look is far less mysterious and atmospheric. The scenes of combat and pursuit on the surface are brutal but clear, and the scenes in the bunker are grimy and filled with shadows, but there is much less use of smoke and diffusion, because this is a working facility. The Blu-ray image is clean, noiseless, detailed and sharp, but with the softer edge and film-like smoothness for which the Alexa is known. In some respects, this presents a challenge for the DP and editor, because much of the zombie makeup isn't good enough to survive being lingered on; shadows and quick cuts are essential. Fortunately, Outpost III devotes much of its running time to the human characters, whose faces are well rendered with excellent detail.

A few colors stand out, notably the green of the forest and the reds of blood and of the warning lights over "the room" (as Strasser calls it) where subjects are irradiated. Otherwise, the colors are all deliberately washed out.

Because there are no extras to speak of, the average bitrate is a healthy 26.62 Mbps, allowing plenty of bandwidth for the action sequences that take up much of the running time.

Outpost: Rise of the Spetsnaz Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Outpost III's 5.1 mix, presented in lossless DTS-HD MA, does full justice to the ferocious firefight between Russian and Nazi forces that dominates the film's first act. Explosions, a variety of large and small arms fire and the rumble of jeeps, trucks and a tank are all reproduced with punch, authority and solid bass extension. An effective, but not gimmicky, sense of directionality is established within the surround field. Once the action reaches the underground bunker, the surrounds are used more atmospherically, with the main action occurring in front, especially during the hand-to-hand combat between soldiers and zombies. The loudest effects are the horrific operations of "the room", which are powerful enough to induce vomiting in German guards standing outside of it. These moments, too, have deep bass extension, along with various others harmonics designed to create a sense of discomfort.

Dialogue is generally clear, despite the Russian and German accents, and the unobtrusive score by Al Hardiman and Patrick Jonsson blends appropriately with the mayhem.

Outpost: Rise of the Spetsnaz Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Other than the film's trailer (1080p; 2.39:1; 1:44), there are no extras. At startup, the disc plays trailers for Banshee Chapter, The Conspiracy, Armistice and Holy Ghost People , which can be skipped with the chapter forward button and are not otherwise available once the disc loads.

Outpost: Rise of the Spetsnaz Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Outpost III has a brief coda set in the present that suggests how the bunker was discovered and the evil depicted in the first two films was initially unleashed. Does this mean that creator Parker has brought his story full circle and concluded the trilogy? As previously noted, Outpost III leaves unanswered questions about what happened to the bunker immediately after the events of the film, and Outpost: Black Sun never conclusively answered the question of whether the deadly forces released in the present had been contained. (George A. Romero's zombies always managed to overwhelm every effort to defeat them.) What we now know (or, rather, you will once you've seen the film) is how the enemy set free in Outpost and Outpost: Black Sun was unwittingly loosed upon the world. Whether the story continues depends largely, I suspect, on the success of Outpost: Rise of the Spetsnaz. It's a lesser film thatn Outpost: Black Sun, with far more emphasis on action than horror. Fans of the first two films will want to check it out, just to complete the circle. Those new to the franchise should start with one of the previous outings (although only the second is available on Blu-ray).