My experience with zombie movies started when I first saw “The Walking Dead” with my sister back in 2017. At first it was frightening and intriguing, but since I got older it stopped being entertaining to me. I personally don’t like zombie shows due to the gore that’s involved. I like movies such as “Straight Outta Compton” and “Fast and Furious,” stuff like that. 

With that being said, “Outside,” a new zombie movie on Netflix, is not even close to the quality of the “Walking Dead” due to the lack of a believable story or realistic situations.

“Outside” came out on Netflix on October 17. It’s a horror drama movie that was directed by Carlos Ledesma, who also directed ¨The Tunnel¨ that was released in 2011. According to Netflix’s description of the movie, this is the very first zombie film that was produced in the Philippines.

“Outside” is about a guy named Francis, his ex-wife Iris, and his 2 sons, Joshua and Lucas. The film starts with a VHS video of Francis and Iris getting married in the past. 

Soon after, it cuts to Francis in the present visiting his abandoned parents house, where he finds that the house isn’t as abandoned as he thought. The overall plot deals with Francis coming home and the trauma he experienced from his parents in this house, while his family deals with a zombie invasion. 

From here, there are several twists and plot developments that were interesting to watch. Most notable is when Francis switched up on his family wanting them to suffer like he did in his childhood. This stood out to me because in zombie movies you usually expect the group to work together and not betray each other.

Even with these interesting scenes, I felt unsatisfied with the ending. It was unclear, and I would have wanted a more clear answer that made sense. It really bothered me because I want a clear ending that makes sense, and a clear path to that ending.

Acting

The acting in this movie was decent. I liked how Sid Lucero, who played Francis, was really in touch with the character. He showed a lot of emotion throughout the film, like in the scene where he was fighting Iris. It was very entertaining seeing how good he plays his character. Aiden Tyler, who played Francis’s younger son Lucas, also did a good job. Even though he is a kid and this is the first movie he has acted in, he knew how to play his part so naturally. In some movies, you see a child actor really overact, but Tyler did a great job being natural.

Even though I liked the human actors, the reason I said it was decent was because of how the zombies were shown. Even though the zombies were fast moving, there were many times where the family could have died but survived. While I don’t watch a lot of zombie media, the zombies in “The Walking Dead” move much differently. Slow zombies feel more realistic because it gives the characters more chances to escape and makes the scenario more believable. In this movie, the fast zombies would have easily taken out the main characters.

Effects

The makeup on the zombies looked good. They made some of the faces look disturbing, which is perfect for a zombie movie. You, as the audience, want to have that eerie feeling when watching a horror movie. 

While the makeup was good, the visual effects were mixed.

In a scene that shows the good and bad effects, zombies were killed by Francis with a grenade. The director made the zombies’ guts go everywhere. It was edited well, they didn’t make it gorey to the point where it’s disgusting, but was still watchable. On the other hand, the smoke effect on the ground afterwards was edited poorly. You could tell it was fake and it did not look one bit realistic.

l  feel like the movie is not worth watching overall. You could go around netflix and find a better movie that is worth your time. Overall, I give this movie a 6/10. This is my personal opinion, you may give it a different rating. Check it out for yourself and let us know what you think in the comments.

“Outside” is streaming on Netflix.