2012 (UK)
Contains mild spoilers.
I'd been led to believe I shouldn't expect
too much from director and co-writer Steve Barker's 2012 sequel to his 2008 dark
Nazi horror Outpost; stick with the first, the original I was told; forget the rest, but I
shouldn't have listened. I did really enjoy, if that's the right word, the
first. It was gritty, real and nasty, and oozed palpable heart-thumping
suspense at every corner. Full of memorable firefights, gory and gruesome
deaths, as well as intelligent and coherent character design and development, it
wasn't without fault, but things were easily overlooked and it came to be quite the
claustrophobic and sadistic little favourite of mine. The first thing that
sprang to mind coming away from this sequel is how Barker's hasn't chosen to
deviate; it's just, if not more, dark and brooding and that's what made outpost tick,
and constantly challenge my bowels, is all still there. Barker had fashioned quite the nightmare world, and Black Sun has every right to belong as part of it
Armed with a larger
budget, though still modest if I've read right, Barker has definitely dialled
the notch up though. The cat is out the bag so to speak. Following straight on
from the rather fatal antics of the first, everyone from NATO through to, let's say
slightly more nefarious parties, are now acutely aware of the rather small
bunker in Easter Europe and the rather dangerous and intimidating
trans-dimensional zombies and their plan to usher in new a thousand year Reich. Physicist Hunt and his British no-nonsense military mercenaries of the
original didn't really help if we're honest. Ok, they brought the not so late
Brigadeführer Götz and his army of super soldiers to the attention of the
world, but in doing so somehow armed him with not only additional ambition but the ability to act on it. It's here with a rapid NATO response force desperately holding back
the relentless and inevitable tide of terror that our story begins.
Black Sun is quite
relentless and ambitious, opting for a more expansive story over the subtle
claustrophobic driven narrative of the first. It's a film that tries to cram a
lot in; perhaps a little too much with far larger scale zombie death, carnage and
mayhem over-exposition and build-up pretty much from the start. I'm not
complaining; though maybe Barker could have started with a little more insight
as it took me longer than he probably intended to get fully behind Lena
(Catherine Steadman), the Nazi war-criminal hunter and even longer, her
relationship / acquaintanceship with physicist Wallace (Richard Coyle). That
being said watching grand NATO skirmishes with the putrid zombie horde was
truly delightful and I'm not sure I'd trade...
The rag tag gang of
British soldiers that Lena and Wallace get caught up with compliment the narrative
of the original whilst offering something both new, and coherent with the story
as Barker is trying to tell it. Whilst they at first they come across a bit one-dimensional
and peripheral to the core pair, Barker once again weaves wonders unveiling and
unravelling each and every back-story, so that by the
time, inevitably, this is Outpost remember, they're killed off in increasingly sadistic, brutal and pointless ways, they're looked at with
appreciation and even fondness. Even the token gobby Scot who f's, blinds and
threatens with the best of them eventually knocks at the friend door demanding to be
cared for.
One thing Black Sun
could perhaps be accused of is trying a little too hard; with maybe one of the
producers or co-writer Rae Brunton (sole writer of the first) telling him
to cut down on the sugar intake during filming. We're not by now talking about
the whole trans-dimensional stuff and Klausener's Nazi experimentation to shift
soldiers outside space and time Philadelphia Experiment style. We're talking
about human machine integration; cyborgism and the ability to expand
electro-magnetic-fields as a consequence, strange electric lightning ray powers (a la
the Emperor from Star Wars), a strange Nazi zombie hag (Medeiros girl) and predominantly the end
of the film. It doesn't all ruin the film but it does hamper it from being
quite as coherent as it could; and did tend to spoil the ending. I also
couldn't help notice the zombie trans-dimensional ability seemed to be more
focused on invulnerability over jumping about in space-time. I can understand
this provided the means for the more linear and coherent narrative which wasn't removed entirely; but the zombies of Black Sun in many instances lost that fear
factor they had from literally being able to be around any corner. The
introduction of EM pulses as a means to actually defeat them also detracted from
that utterly undefeatable aura they had in the first. Don't get me wrong;
they're still, in action, quite formidable and the nastiest group of undead
psychopaths you're ever likely to see but it's just all a lot more traditional
zombie; albeit stabby, stabby not bitey, bitey.
Barker has taken two
of our most popular conspiracies and run with it, fashioning an unashamedly
perverse alternative world history that for as prosperous as it all sounds makes
for a remarkably serious, coherent and cohesive duo of films. A rare zombie
film that not only embellishes and compliments its predecessor but leaves them intact as unique experiences, I can do nothing but praise. Ok, as said, the ending
wasn't great and Barker could have shown better composure with pacing and
some, shall we say, improved discernment over some interesting but out of place
ideas, which could easily have reduced all the good work to farce. The hellish nightmare vision Barker presents though, does ultimately hold together and thoroughly entertains - 7/10.
Steven@WTD.
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