01. outside (2024) [🎥 7/10]
filipino zombie movie except the zombies are only there for like 15 minutes and the Man is scarier than any zombie. [7/10]
spoilers ahead!
i too would choose the zombie over the man.
listen as funny as the letterboxd reviews are, the film isn't even that bad. good stuff first. the film is really carried by the performance of the cast, especially sid lucero who at times was even scarier than the zombies (in defense of the zombies, however, they rarely show up in the film anyway).
his slow descent into his own madness was horrifying, at times reminding me of the shining, and god that christmas dinner scene was SO hard and uncomfortable to watch. the tension in it was suffocating but you just can't look away from it. i think it's around there that the slowness of this film picks up somewhat, and i did enjoy that ending. hearing luke screaming, even if it were an act made my stomach drop. everything that came after left me at the edge of my seat. the soldier's body that the father dumped outside inevitably being the cause of leading the zombiefied diego into the home? also horrifying. the moment he starts blaming iris for letting the zombie in though i was yelling that it was literally HIS fault for killing the soldier in the first place. if he didn't snap out of it, the dad's character would've driven me insane. but even those events threw me in a whole other loop when francis came across joshua on the bridge. and joshua, seeing his limping, injured dad bloodied and repeating his name over and over—thinking those were his final words as a zombie and shooting him out of fear and safety—only to realize that he was his dad the moment he finally acknowledges him as his son. AND not to mention the fact that the watch also signified the inheriting of generational trauma, to which josh leaves behind for the sake of the family he has now. it wasn't anything super mindblowing, but i appreciated those little details. oh and i love the color grading and the cinematic feel of the movie. pretty good stuff!
now does this movie really need to be almost 2 and a half hours long..?
on one hand, i kinda get it. throughout the movie there definitely is that feeling of claustrophobia just by stretching out certain scenes. that, i appreciate. but it's a shame they don't maximize the runtime with more context—and its effect leaves most of the audience (..or just me..?) pretty puzzled. like yeah, francis undeniably sucks. why? well iris had this affair with diego (which i think makes her just as bad) and— okay thanks but WHY did iris do that then?? we don't know francis enough as a character to know if he'd always been a shitty father at worst, or a well-meaning but deeply flawed father because of trauma at best. it's like we were just thrown into the generic Pinoy Love Affair Plot. right in the middle of it. i would have loved to know why the last words of francis' mom were "sorry". i think instead of showing all those unnecessary raunchy scenes (seriously, with their teen son too?? :/ gross), we could have had this better exposition of francis' traumas and whatever else is wrong with the marriage by at least having his parents alive to interact with the family just a little bit. i think that would be an interesting take that would much better make use of the padded length. seriously, we could cut off a good 40 minutes off the movie and it would be way better. either that, or use that time to show us more!!
i know this film is more psychological horror than zombie flick—and i don't mind! again, it's more the shining-esque than anything... i guess the fact that people came into this expecting more zombie were disappointed and contributed to its lower letterboxd score. but if you stop viewing it at that angle, it becomes more tolerable. and in my case, still enjoyable. it's just that it was already 2 hours and 20 minutes and i STILL wanted something. ah well..
but my praise for this film, regardless. it's still impressive for what it is, just that the execution could be better. hashtag mabuhay hashtag pinoy pride hashtag swagapino
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