Movies
[BD Review] ‘Outpost: Black Sun’ Plays Out Like a Boring First-Person Shooter
Review by James A. Janisse
Outpost: Black Sun is a horror movie released earlier this year about Nazi zombies. Actually, I think zombie Nazis is more accurate, since they were Nazis before they were raised from the dead, not zombies who decided to join the National Socialist party. In any case, the film is a sequel to 2008’s Outpost, a fact I did not know before I sat down to watch it, so bear with me since I’ve never seen the original and thus might be missing some background information. In any case, Outpost: Black Sun doesn’t deliver on the good times zombie Nazis would suggest, ending up a muddled affair that plays like a boring first-person shooter.
After a set-up that shows us mad Nazi scientist Klausener (David Gant) and his re-animated soldiers kicking some ass, we meet Lena (Catherine Steadman), a young Jewish Nazi hunter trying to track down aging officers to exact revenge for her ascendants. This quickly leads her to an undisclosed location in Eastern Europe, where she joins engineer Wallace (Richard Coyle) to uncover why, exactly, there are so many NATO troops in the area. Their search eventually teams them up with a squad of soldiers who are venturing deep into the woods to turn off an electrical device that’s powering an army of reanimated Nazis.
This set-up is kind of preposterous, but there have been plenty of great movies built upon outlandish premises. What makes those movies work, though – and I’m thinking of silly affairs like Rocky Horror or Repo! The Genetic Opera – is that they don’t take themselves seriously. They embrace the campiness inherent to their story and just roll with it, winking at the audience to let them know they’re in on the joke. Director Steve Barker, who also co-wrote the film with Rae Brunton, inexplicably shoots Black Sun completely straight-faced, as though these zombie Nazis were a somber threat his audience should be made aware of.
I wouldn’t bash the decision to make this a serious film if it had been done cohesively. After all, the Nazis were an actual real-life terror, one of the most evil groups of people humankind has ever seen, and it’s not inconceivable that their return – undead or not – could be played as commentary on fascism in the modern world, or something like that. But instead, we get a hunchbacked zombie woman whose shrill laughter never stops, a dude hooked up to electrical cables that can spew out force lightning at random, and a script with so many “F”-words that it could have been written by a middle-aged boy. It’s really hard to take a movie seriously when lines like “This is for all the marbles” get uttered without a modicum of self-awareness.
And that still isn’t the worst bit of dialogue in the film. The aforementioned lightning guy is incomprehensible, dejectedly reciting lines that sound like they’re coming from an angsty first-year philosophy student. “The world is vibration particles, nothing more,” he says to Lena, as if that actually meant something. The confusing dialogue and story-line is made worse by perpetual dark lighting and camera movements designed to give the viewer motion sickness. Its honestly hard to imagine them making this movie worse than it already is.
Filmmakers who work in cheesy B-horror take note: If your movie’s material sounds ridiculous at the offset, play it up and don’t take yourself too seriously. If you do, you might end up with Outpost: Black Sun, a joyless movie that isn’t even graphic enough to satisfy gore-hounds.
Video: A lot of Outpost: Black Sun is very dark, a sad fact since it looks pretty damn good when you can see what’s going on. The video is crisp and the colors are appropriately bleak, but whether the characters are indoors or outdoors, they’re moving around in perpetual darkness, making it sometimes hard to see what’s going on.
Audio: One of the few great things about Outpost: Black Sun is its sound design, which gets great 5.1 treatment on the Bluray. The Nazi growls come through excellently, and the occasions where sound gets muffled for dramatic effect are perfect.
Extras / Special Features:
Making-of (5 minutes): 5 minutes of interviews and on-set footage. Barker talks about his decision to make a sequel to Outpost and how he had $200 grand extra to make it. Steadman and Coyle talk about their roles and the movie’s plot, and even they seem like they’re not entirely sure how this script got written. For the record, they both did a great job with the material they were given to work with.
Trailer (2 minutes): The trailer gives a good condensed version of the plot, chronologically introducing Lena, Wallace, and the soldiers. It’s actually more clear than the movie in telling the story, and it does a really good job of making the movie look exciting.
The big new movie that everyone’s going to be talking about this week is of course Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey, but don’t let it completely overshadow all the new horror this week.
SEVEN brand new horror movies are now available in the comfort of your own home.
Here are the new horror movies that released July 13 – July 17, 2026!
After a massively successful box office run that scared up $364 million (and counting) at the worldwide box office, Kane Parsons’ Backrooms is now available on Digital at home.
You can either digitally rent or digitally purchase the A24 horror film on outlets including Amazon Prime, and it’ll cost you $19.99 for the rental and $24.99 for the purchase.
Chiwetel Ejiofor stars in Backrooms as the owner of Cap’n Clark’s Ottoman Empire, who discovers a strange doorway in the basement of the furniture showroom. He sets out to explore the mysterious, liminal space, walking headfirst into a creepypasta nightmare.
Renate Reinsve (A Different Man) also stars in Backrooms.
Meagan wrote in her review, “Backrooms is at once complex and sparse, but never repetitive. It might be set in 1990, but it effectively captures modern anxieties and isolation in a way that frequently makes your skin crawl. While the journey ultimately loses steam by its cryptic end, Parsons’ visual representation of the human psyche disturbs like no other.”
YouTube prodigy Kane Parsons makes his feature directorial debut based on his creepypasta-inspired video series, which debuted in 2022 and has amassed over 190 million views to date.
After a festival run and theatrical tour, Cineverse acquired U.S. digital and streaming rights to writer/director Alex Phillips’ blood-soaked erotic thriller Anything That Moves.
The film is now available on VOD and streaming only on Fandor.
“Young bike messenger turned sex worker Liam (played by newcomer Hal Baum) traverses the city delivering both sandwiches and divine satisfaction to his love-hungry clients. But as a serial killer begins to target his clients—and the evidence all seems to point back to him—he’s sucked into an all-consuming paranoid frenzy.”
With a largely Chicago-based cast, the film also features performances from erotic film legends and fan favorites Ginger Lynn (The Devil’s Rejects) and Nina Hartley (Boogie Nights).
Anything That Moves was shot in Chicago on fleshy Super 16mm by Hunter Zimny (The Scary of Sixty-first, Funny Pages), then blown up and presented on gorgeous 35mm film.
The “rust belt giallo” was produced with cult home video outfit Vinegar Syndrome and features an original instrumental score by Chicago-based artists “Cue Shop.”
Drawing comparisons to The Texas Chain Saw Massacre and The Substance, the serial killer horror-comedy Frankie, Maniac Woman is now available on Digital at home.
Here’s the official synopsis for the horror film: “Battling against the legacy of childhood trauma, internalized misogyny, and the image-obsessed fat shaming of the LA music business, aspiring singer-songwriter Frankie Ramirez finally snaps — with bloody results.”
Pierre Tsigaridis (Traumatika) directs from a script he co-wrote with Dina Silva.
Dina Silva also stars in the movie as Frankie alongside Stefanie Estes (Soft and Quiet), Tim Fox (Two Witches), Jordan Debarge (“Squid Game: The Challenge”), Rocío de la Grana, Desma Triplett, Daniella Mendoza, and Pierre Tsigaridis.
Horror anthology Portraits of the Apocalypse also hit Digital on Tuesday.
The film depicts a Buenos Aires overrun by zombies through four intertwined stories, exploring the outbreak’s confusion, ensuing chaos, and humanity’s fight to endure the impossible.
Directors include Luca Castello, Fabián Forte, and Nicanor Loreti.
Demián Salomón, Lorena Vega, Ezequiel Rodríguez, Paula Manzone, Natalia Santiago, Paula Rubinsztein, and Rodrigo Raffeto are featured stars in Portraits of the Apocalypse.
A brand new shark attack movie, The Bay is now available on Digital.
You’ll also find the film playing in select theaters.
Francesca Eastwood (M.F.A., Clawfoot) stars in The Bay, which will notably feature an animatronic shark that’s been created by SFX and animatronics company Bischoff’s.
In writer/director Phil Volken’s The Bay, “When their tour boat sinks in a shark sanctuary, two best friends must fight for survival to escape the shark-infested waters.”
Alexander Wraith, Dani Oliveros, and Ta’imua also star.
Phil Volken said in a statement, “I’ve made several films set on the open sea, and The Bay is the culmination of my experiences to date – with my crack team of regular collaborators, the movie is finely and expertly honed to maximize the combined fears of the ocean, the unknown, sharks and ultimately, just how cold-blooded nature can be – specifically human nature.”
“I’m delighted with the scale and performances we’ve delivered onscreen,” Volken continues. “The Bay’s going to completely immerse and terrify audiences worldwide!”
Phil Volken has indeed carved out a niche directing open sea-based movies over the years, including the thriller Extortion back in 2017 and the horror movie Dead Sea just last year.
Road trip horror movie Kill Trip drove its way onto Digital today.
“A group of carefree festival-goers hitch a ride toward what should be the best weekend of their lives — but when they trust the wrong stranger, their journey spirals into a waking nightmare. As their numbers begin to dwindle and bodies mysteriously vanish, survival becomes a desperate race against an unseen evil lurking just beneath the surface.
“One grim truth remains: not everyone will live to see Austin.”
Kristian McKay wrote and directed Kill Trip.
Tate Christensen, Diletta Guglielmi, Stelio Savante, Corin Nemec, Samaire Armstrong, Brittany McVicker, Todd Jenkins, and John Ford Coley star in Kill Trip.
And finally, another new shark attack movie was released today!
From The Asylum, Shark Frenzy is now available on Digital.
In the film from director Ryan Ebert, “A family vacation turns nightmare when their daughter and her friends are lost at sea. After their fishing boat is destroyed, they cling to a rowboat in open water as her parents race to find them and circling sharks close in for the kill.”
David Chokachi, Sarafina King, Sophia Sabol, Brian Latimer, Daniel Cobden, and Keenan Warda star in The Asylum’s (Sharknado franchise) latest shark attack horror movie.
You must be logged in to post a comment.