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FEARNET Movie Review: 'Outpost 3: Rise of the Spetsnaz'

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As we often do, especially when dealing with Part 3s that originate from outside of North America, we'll open with a recap. Outpost (2007) gave us some modern-day mercenaries who stumble across an undead creature that's been waiting for victims since WWII. Outpost 2: Black Sun (2012) focused on a platoon of NATO experts who respond to the previous carnage -- which leads to even more carnage. The second chapter gave us a few glimpses of the WWII origins of the Nazi Zombie Stormtrooper Monsters...

 
... but it's Outpost 3: Rise of the Spetsnaz (2014) that takes us back to 1945 and offers a fitfully amusing prequel to this progressively sillier indie horror franchise. 
 
As a horror junkie who sort of enjoyed the first two Outpost flicks, even I'll have to admit that Part 3 is probably the weakest of the lot, but screenwriter Rae Brunton, who co-wrote the previous chapters, has just enough ideas to close the trilogy out with a dash of color. Steve Barker, director of Outpost and Black Sun, has been replaced by franchise producer Kieran Parker, and he does a workmanlike job with a plainly limited budget, a one-location setting, and a scope that's clearly a little bit smaller than the previous movies.
 
Outpost 3 is basically a "mad scientist" tale in a "prison escape" package, and if you're a hard-working horror fan who knows a bit about the first two entries, you'll appreciate at least the second sequel's bleak look, grim sense of humor, and frequent doses of blood-soaked fisticuffs, gunfights, and monster attacks. If this entry lacks the sleazy novelty of the previous pair (we get it, they're hulking undead zombie Nazis), at least it delivers an action-packed presentation of, well, rather predictable genre tropes, cliches, and conventions. Let's just say that our hero, a Russian prisoner, has a sidekick who must "fight back" against a biological infection to help save the day. Exactly. You know what's going to happen, but it's kinda fun anyway.
 
Boasting some solid gore effects and a very expeditious pace (once the flick gets into the evil scientist's underground lair, that is) and offering just enough of a nod to the original Outpost to keep fans happy, Rise of the Spetsnaz is little more than action / horror / war movie lunacy that you may come across on cable one night, but if the idea of action, horror, and war movie lunacy sounds like fun to you, I'd say start at Outpost Uno and work your way through. These are basically comic-book horror stories, but they're all kinda fun.
 

READ FEARNET'S PARTNER REVIEWS OF OUTPOST III


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