Catangro After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

Lollivan It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

Ezmae Chang This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

Lachlan Coulson This is a gorgeous movie made by a gorgeous spirit.

Leofwine_draca THE DEAD OUTSIDE is probably the worst non-zombie zombie film I've had to sit through in recent years. It's a real dog's dinner of a film, shot on zero budget and in a hurry, and it has no story or sense of intrigue or mystery or suspense to propel it along. Any incident that occurs during the movie is ruined by incessant shaky-cam work that means when stuff finally happens, you can't see it happening anyway.The film is about a couple of people holed up in a remote Scottish farmhouse after an epidemic of sorts. It sounds a bit 28 DAYS LATER-ish, but it's nothing like that or any of the other zombie movies made recently. It's just two dull-beyond-belief characters and somebody filming them with a camcorder. The acting is non-existent, the script lacks creativity, and the whole thing is a waste of time from beginning to end. It's not often that I feel angry after watching a movie for having had my time wasted, but I did so in this instance.

Ore-Sama Those with short attention spans and no appreciation for minimalism will balk at this film, which is probably why it has a laughable 4.3 rating (as of this review). However, as a huge fan of zombie films, I think this one is criminally underrated and for those with an appreciation for something more challenging, "The Dead Outside" delivers.The premise is dirt simple: Danielle, a man who recently lost his wife and child in this national zombie epidemic, finds an empty house on his travels. He stops in for a bit and is discovered by a teenage girl named April, who has survived their on her own for many years.The film mostly follows them in their time living together. It's a typical dynamic on paper, with Danielle being more humane and not wanting to kill the zombies, while April has no hesitation in killing them. While Danielle is fairly calm and collected, April is volatile and paranoid. Their dialogue and interaction are realistic and nuanced. Nothing feels cliché or forced here, and even the revelation of April's back story, which could've easily been over the top, is well done.The pacing is slow and methodical. Many smaller moments, such as Danielle taking a shower when the lights go out, or April chopping wood, adds to the feeling that we're watching life unfold rather than a traditional movie. It's helped by the camera work, almost always close in, adding to the intimacy and intensity. Combined with the beautiful but foggy and desolate setting, creates a gripping atmosphere.The film builds into one of the most intense climaxes in a zombie film since "Let Sleeping Corpses Lie", and when it was over, I wished that the film would go on longer. Not for any kind of loose ends left, but simply to see it continue.Highly recommended, especially if you're looking for something a bit different.

yeah_sure A small budget, a few unknown actors, a secluded farm, a global epidemic that turns people into violent lunatics. It COULD work. But it doesn't. The script has serious problems: it moves too slowly, and ultimately goes nowhere. We have the troubled guy, and the troubled girl. Both have issues. They have to depend on each other to survive, while overcoming their ghosts. All this is established early on, but dragged through ineffective flashbacks and poor dialogue, for far too long. The infected are too few and far between, and never seem like a real menace. Two people with a crappy rifle and some barbed wire manage to fend them off easily. The doors and windows aren't even reinforced. Most of the time, they could as easily be there on (a very very boring) vacation, rather than in the middle of a world apocalypse. The characters are not interesting. The guy is dull and clueless. The girl is always annoyed AND annoying. The other girl is just as dull as the guy, and doesn't bring anything new. Their past stories should give us new insights about them, but don't. The (possible) immunity subplot is never properly explored, or settled. Its just thrown in for the sake of it, like too many things in the movie. Overall, "The Dead Outside" does have some upsides (for a post-apocalyptic movie) - a sense of isolation and lack of hope, a few (very few) mild scares, and the cinematography isn't great, but its watchable. But by the end, you're wondering which is worse: being infected, or being a part of this sad, boring bunch.

Gareth Walters The first feature from music video director Kerry Anne Mullaney exists in world even bleaker and farther north than 28 Days Later, and a little deeper inside the art house. The director makes a benefit of the lack of finance, with gritty visuals and an excellent performance from Sandra Louise Douglas (in her first role), as April, a girl soaked in horror, whose anger may have more meaning than mere teenage angst. The two lead characters exist on opposite sides of a moral divide—Daniel, a good man who still sees the infected as human beings, is haunted (it seems literally in a couple of scenes), by what he couldn't bring himself to do, whereas April shoots on sight, and is almost catatonic from the things she has seen, the people she has lost, and those she has killed. Shot in two weeks, and self-financed on a micro budget, which is hardly an issue, the production team of Mullaney and producer/co-scripter/cameraman Kris R Bird (who together created promos for Drive-By Argument and Cosmic Rough Riders), demand a lot from their audience, which is refreshing in an age where the horror film seems designed to evoke nothing beyond revulsion, and their debut shows immense promise. Add another strong, intelligent team to the new league of British horror auteurs. Stick through the final titles to hear the excellent "Evacuate" by indie upstarts The Boxer Rebellion.