From “The Thing” to “Dog Soldiers,” I don’t know any one of you horror geeks who doesn’t love a good “Monster in the house” horror flick involving a mismatched group of blokes, and a being of some supernatural descent picking them off one by one. I can best describe this as “The Thing” meets “The Haunting” in what is probably one of the cooler action horror movies I’ve seen in years. With definite shades if Carpenter’s remake in certain scenes, Steve Barkers’s foreign horror flick revolves around that classic formula of a group of people reaching a Macguffin in the middle of nowhere for the goal of the almighty dollar, and find some historic spooks bringing them down one by one with the power to surpass any fire power they can offer. While the primary enemy and the setting are creaky and rusty in many parts, “Outpost” has an energy about it that makes it a fascinating little action-horror entry.

Some scenes in “Outpost” are absolutely stunning as Barker poses our villains as sentient menaces that can appear and disappear at will, while Ray Stevenson and the ensemble cast are perfectly archetypal to the sub-genre director Barker gears his story towards. The meshing personalities prove to be an effective melting pot with tension and racial clashing always in motion. It's also paired with an old chestnut of an antagonist that's implemented in a way that would allow for their presence, and add an original twist to the villain we've seen in film for decades. Barker strives on the slow boil method starting his film as a thriller that then leads into the more supernatural cabin fever that ensues once the underground bunker becomes a cauldron of death with the discovery of a Holocaust victim whose been considerably preserved for years. “Outpost” makes for an effective guy’s horror film with a very interesting premise worthy of a few more sequels under the banner. There's still plenty of potential to this concept, and I hope we get to explore much more of it.

While Barker’s horror film does exude the feeling of claustrophobia, it fails in almost everything else. There’s no sense of urgency, and little to no feeling of chaos or nihilism, which is unusual when all elements of the story involve aspects that can easily reach the audience and grip them with a competent storyteller. Alas, there’s really nothing here beyond a rather bland and ineffectual mindset from the start of the story, with scenes that bear the potential to be absolutely horrifying and are sadly nothing more than mediocrity in a consistent rhythm. Even when our villains are looking out on to their land in the climax with the figures in the fog, there’s just no real feeling of terror and every opportunity to prove brilliance sadly falls under the hail of underwhelming tension and sub-par performances. While the antagonist in the form of a "survivor" is very originally implemented there's the sense that all promise of character and truly corruptible force is missing, while the Nazi presence feels awfully forced and never really seems to completely fit with the overall scheme of the story, in the end. When they should feel like specters of evil, they instead feel like a fallback antagonist. “Outpost” has received rave reviews and not for nothing, but it’s really not as spectacular as many have claimed it to be. It’s just serviceable in the end.

Steve Barker's horror action film is sadly a bland affair with a creaky enemy that doesn't lend us too much originality, but in spite of that, "Outpost" does entertain on a visceral level with some genuinely tense moments and great direction.