The Dead Outside (2008)

This might have been a decent character-driven film, if any of the characters were interesting or likable.But, the trio of main characters are dull, listless, and depressing.It often feels like you're missing part of the movie. The interesting parts. Or the parts with the plot.And then there are the constant and annoying flashbacks. They're done in such a way that they;re hard to follow and do little to advance the plot or give us any real interest in the characters.I understand that this is supposed to be a mood movie, but the characters and their motivations seem implausible at best and unbelievable at worst, the plot is nearly non-existent, and what little suspense coupled be achieved is lost from poor direction and pacing.Avoid this one.

This is one of the better low budget horror movies I've seen. The plot has been covered elsewhere, I'll just mention what I liked about it. The whole film is story and character, with plenty to spare. The characters are interesting, the story is original. You can get into this movie, feel for the characters, wonder what might happen next. They obviously didn't spend a lot of money on it, but they did use some talent and it shows.I would, and probably will, watch this again. It's good enough to play in the local theater and make some money. There are a lot of big-budget Hollywood types who should watch this and see what it does right.

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.

Completely derivative, and not very rewarding. Although the talent of the filmmakers involved is evident, they sabotage themselves by working with completely empty content. Badly written, badly acted and repetitive, the film failed to justify its running time. THE DEAD OUTSIDE works for about 15 minutes, after which its lack of momentum makes it hard to sit through. I suspect it would probably have made a good short film, however.It has been mentioned that the film "expects a lot from its audience", but this isn't quite true. There was far too much exposition in some scenes. The characters and their stories are simply not very interesting. It's a common thing to see in an indie, but the extent to which bad acting can weigh down even a good script *cannot* be overstated. I'm sure THE DEAD OUTSIDE will be the cast and crew's ticket to bigger/better things, but as a cinema experience it simply is not up to par.I'll try and contextualize my score by listing scores for the last couple of indies I've seen: RULE OF THREE (Eric Shapiro). Good acting for an indie. Reasonably good Script. Terribly shot, terrible music. 5/10 INK (Jamin Winans). Some pretty good ideas, hugely ambitious and elaborate production. Weak execution and bad acting. 5/10 SHALLOW GROUND (Sheldon Wilson). A bloody mess. Nonsensical plot. An exercise in pointlessness. 3/10 THE DEAD OUTSIDE (Kerry Anne Mullaney). A technically competently lensed film, but lacking any real focus or originality. Badly acted, boring script, repetitive sound design. 4/10