Looks like someone decided it was a good idea to make yet another zombie movie. Not a bad idea, considering there will always be hardcore zombie fans that will gobble them up. But who thought this would be a good movie? Definitely wouldn’t have been me. However, I love to support international movies, especially in the horror genre. Some of the best horror films were produced by our friends overseas. While Outside is somewhat serviceable, the slow pacing, mediocre story and lack of explanation for things hardly justifies the runtime of 2 hours and 20 minutes. It’s absolutely ridiculous someone thought it would be a good idea to drag out such a slow movie with such a simple plot for that long.

So the idea of Outside is not new. When disaster strikes, someone wants to keep the other members from leaving a safe shelter at all costs. Reasons can obviously vary and the threats can seem either real or imagined, but the paranoia eventually sets in and sooner or later, everything and everyone comes crashing headlong like a collision. Take Shelter and 10 Cloverfield Lane comes to mind. With Outside, Francis, played by Sid Lucero, is protecting his family in his parent’s and childhood home while trying to avoid the zombie outbreak. While trying to create a new life for his family in this crazy new world, the wife obviously has other ideas. But when Francis prevents any and all attempts of moving north for help, things starts to get weird for the family.

Do not expect Outside to be a zombie thriller. While there were one or two scenes of ducking and dodging the zombies, the story entirely revolves around why Francis remains so intent on keeping his family locked up in his childhood home. The zombie outbreak is just an excuse and a distraction to lure in viewers. For the view glimpses we do see of the zombies, they were actually quite funny, which of course, is bad as I don’t think that’s what the director intended? We do not get an ounce of explanation throughout the entire film on what caused the outbreak. Personally, I’m okay with that. The directors can play the mysterious card on that if they want to. However, I get a sense that once a person gets infected, they are only able to remember the few moments of what they were doing at that time? For example, a priest turned zombie would continue to utter holy sayings over and over. A checkpoint military guard turned zombie would continue to ask you for your pass while chasing you down? But what about a simple woman who was just out shopping for vegetables turned zombie?

Jokes aside, Outside should have been cut at least one hour off its current run time. They don’t talk about the outbreak itself, nor do they go over Francis’s messed up childhood and why he is so intent on keeping the family locked up. Yes, we understand what happened to him, but maybe giving us some flashbacks to his childhood years would have helped? Or maybe flashbacks to how life was for the family prior to the outbreak? I mean, give us something to care about on this 2+ hour movie! While the slow buildup in the first half did set up the suspense in the later half, I felt it a shame that not more was done to advance this movie from being below average. Good acting from Sid Lucero saved this movie from falling even further below that.