Very brutal and often grotesque, the war drama Outpost: Rise of the Spetsnaz has been released on DVD. The super evil film has excellent special effects and make-up, works with a good cast and has action sequences that feature relentless hand to hand combat. Loosely based with similar characters as the video games Tom Clancy’s “EndWar” or “Call of Duty: Nazi Zombies”, the film targets a similar audience and horror fans.
A small squad of the Russian Red Guard, known as the Spetsnaz, has been playing hit and run with the Nazis on the Eastern Front. It’s close to the end of WWII, but word has not been relayed to the small rag-tag team of highly trained soldiers. On this occasion they ambush a convoy on its way to a German outpost and take them down without a loss to their squad.
Mopping up, they hear Nazis coming from the woods lead by a horrifying sound of growling. The Red Guard turns to fight the oncoming band of Nazis and witness the terror of a dog zombie leading the way. Cornered, only two of the Red Guard, Dolokhov (Bryan Larkin) and Fyodor (Iván Kamarás), are left standing. They are captured and taken to an underground lab. What they find there are the results of experiments by the Nazis to create ruthless supernatural soldiers and Dolokhov and Fyodor are slated to be their prey.
Director Kieran Parker who produced the first chapter of Outpost in 2007 takes the reins of this third chapter. He keeps the series bold and gutsy with heavy laden Nazi Zombie fighting and blazing guns throughout. He’s not a stranger to violent films and he knows what it takes to make the fighting blistering and the story moving at a fast pace. His Zombie’s are very frightening and huge showing relentless viciousness up against the Russian Spetsnaz leaders.
The cinematography is brilliant with a lot of close ups during the attacks between the two factions. Except for a few scenes Parker uses very few CGI effects keeping his film very realistic with the interior combat. He relies on very realistic costuming, prosthesis and make-up to bring the Zombie’s to life. He then provides them with German and Russian weapons for even more of an authentic look. Being the third installment, I’m sure he had a lot of equipment in a warehouse for use as props and his sets are underground where he can control the action in corridors that resemble Nazi WWII bunkers.
The video quality using letterbox gives the full widescreen look of the movie theater. The shots are clear and clean showing the grit and savagery of the wicked war. Even the shots in the dim lighting of the underground labs are easily distinguishable and give off an aura of horror.
The sound quality is very good using the Dolby Digital 5.1 through my HD television. It’s even better if you have an upgraded sound system where you can hear the deafening battle attacks bouncing off the walls in your family room.
The film has not been rated by the MPAA but contains violence, gore, language and brutality in large measures. Be cautious when deciding to allow immature children see the film as it does have relentless scenes that are very inappropriate for adolescents.
Specifications and additional film information:
Cast: Bryan Larkin, Iván Kamarás, Michael McKell, Velibor Topic
Director: Kieran Parker
MPAA Rating: Unrated, Contains extreme violence, language and
Genre: War, Sci-Fi, Horror
Running Time: 1 hr 28 min
Video Release Date: March 18, 2013
Language: English
Format: DVD
Audio: Dolby Digital 5.1
Video: Widescreen 2.35:1 Aspect Ratio Letterbox
Subtitles: None
Number of Discs: 1 Disc
Distributed by: XLrator Media
