Outpost

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Outpost
Theatrical poster
Directed by	Steve Barker
Produced by	Arabella Croft Kieran Parker
Written by	Rae Brunton
Starring	Ray Stevenson Julian Wadham Richard Brake Michael Smiley Enoch Frost Paul Blair Julian Rivett Brett Fancy and Johnny Meres.
Music by	James Seymour Brett
Cinematography	Gavin Struthers
Editing by	Alastair Reid
Distributed by	ContentFilm
Release date(s)	United States: 11 March 2008 United Kingdom 16 May 2008
Running time	90 min.
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English

Outpost is a 2008 British horror film, directed by Steve Barker and written by Rae Brunton, about a rough group of experienced mercenaries who're hired to take a mysterious businessman into the woods where a WWII-era military bunker would be found and soon, they find themselves fighting for their lives.

Plot

In a seedy bar in a town ravaged by war, scientist and businessman Hunt (Julian Wadham) hires mercenary and former Royal Marine D.C. (Ray Stevenson) to assemble a crack team of ex-soldiers, Prior (Richard Brake), Jordan (Paul Blair), Cotter (Enoch Frost), Voytech (Julian Rivett), McKay (Michael Smiley) and Taktarov (Brett Fancy), to protect him on a dangerous journey into no-man's land. Their mission is to scope out an old military bunker in Eastern Europe. It should be easy – 48 hours at the most. Lots of cash for little risk. Or so he says...

Once at the outpost, the men make a horrific discovery that turns their mission on its head – the scene of a bloody and gruesome series of experiments, carried out by the SS, in reality shifting and reanimation during World War II to create invincible soldiers. (See Die Glocke) Amidst the carnage, they find a survivor (Johnny Meres).

At night, the clearing around the bunker is suddenly lit up, and silhouettes of people are seen amongst the light. Soon after, a member of their team called Tak goes missing and is gruesomely killed by an unseen foe. Later the same night Voyteche is killed by two Nazis. The next morning his and Tak's dead bodies are found linked together by the head, and Tak's containing a spent round in his skull. D.C. receives answers regarding the assignment from Hunt, which was that an unnamed corporation wanted Hunt to find and recover a large generator-like device which was responsible for the SS's reality-shifting experiments. D.C. orders Cotter to retrieve Hunt from the generator room. However, while trying to convince Hunt to come with him, an SS soldier with a pickaxe kills Cotter. It is revealed that the survivor the mercenaries recovered was actually a surviving SS brigadier general, with Prior killing the officer, the "breather" comes back to life and MacKay speaks his last words of "You're hummin' my balls!", and is killed. The mercenaries and Hunt attempt to evacuate the outpost only to be killed by the undead German army.

A second corporate team arrives 72 hours later to carry out the same assignment, only to "find a breather" among the piles of naked corpses and face the illuminated soldiers surrounding the bunker, in the distance stands the brigadier general who gives the SS soldiers a nod and they begin their assault on the team before the credits roll.

Cast

• Ray Stevenson as DC (nicknamed Top by Taktarov)- British Royal Marine Warrant Officer
• Julian Wadham as Hunt
• Richard Brake as Prior - United States Marine Corps
• Paul Blair as Jordan - Scottish French Foreign Legionnaire
• Brett Fancy as Taktarov - Russian Alpha Group
• Enoch Frost as Cotter - Belgian Peacekeeper
• Julian Rivett as Voyteche - Yugoslav military
• Michael Smiley as McKay/Mac - IRA Guerilla/British Paratrooper
• Johnny Meres as The Breather (Brigadeführer)

Production

The film was produced by Scottish couple Arabella Croft and Kieran Parker and their production company Black Camel Pictures. They mortgaged their Glasgow home in order to raise £200,000 to finance production. The script is by Rae Brunton, based on Parker's original concept, which he described as "Platoon meets The Sixth Sense".^[1]

Although set in Eastern Europe, filming was done in a munitions factory in Dalbeattie, in a forest near Castle Douglas, and in the Glasgow Film City studio complex in the Govan area of Glasgow.^[1][2] Filming began in January 2007.

Sony Pictures bought distribution rights to the film for £1.2 million.^[1] Sony released it directly to DVD in the USA on March 11, 2008. Following favourable reviews, the film was exhibited theatrically across Europe. The film's European premiere was at a gala showing as part of the Dumfries Film Festival ^[1][3] on the 3rd of May 2008, followed by limited distribution to 130 UK cinemas.

The producers are planning a sequel: Outpost II: Black Sun.^[4] The sequel has been granted £25,000 of funding from Dumfries and Galloway Council.^[4]

Sequel

Teaser poster for Outpost 2: Black Sun

A sequel, entitled Outpost: Black Sun, is currently in production.^[5][6] The film has been written by Steve Barker and Rae Brunton while Barker has returned as director.^[7] In February 2012, a second sequel was announced titled Outpost: Rise of the Spetsnaz which will be going into production in April 2012.^[8]

See also

• R-Point

References

External links

• Vertigo Films
• 'Behind The Scenes' Featurette
• Press Release
• Outpost at the Internet Movie Database
• Black Camel Pictures
• Govan zombies taste film success - BBC News, 16 April 2008
• Horror film premiere on horizon - BBC News, 16 April 2008
• Gavin Struthers Director Of Photography
• James Seymour Brett Official Website
• Outpost (movie official page) on Facebook
• Outpost 2: Black Sun (movie official page) on Facebook