Director: Colm McCarthy
Release Date: 2010 (UK)
Starring: James Nesbitt, Kate Dickie, James Cosmo
Genre: Horror/Thriller
When you think about it, Outcast actually bears quite a strong resemblannce to The Incredible Hulk. Hero turns into an uncontrollable beast when enraged. Check. Hero is hunted relentlessly and just wants to live a normal life and be left alone. Check. Slowly but surely Hero goes to more and more extreme lengths to protect his anonymity, though inevitably fails. Check. Hero is being hunted by magic Irish Gypsies and goes on a murderous rampage through Edinburgh killing chavs and Doctor Who’s Assistant. Erm… Ok maybe it’s not exactly the same then.
Shown at the Edinburgh International film Festival as part of its program of late night horror films, Outcast is a neat little British horror film starring James Nesbitt, James Cosmo, Katie Dickie and Niall Bruton. It tells the story of a magical traveling people who hire Nesbitt to track down and kill Bruton and in exchange they grant him special magical powers. However, he only gets to keep his powers if he manages to kill Bruton. Exacerbating this situation is a series of unexplained murders occurring in the estate where young Bruton is staying. Ultimately the plot has a few twists but they come out as being slightly predictable or even worse completely nonsensical. A prime example of this is early on in the film when the natures of the boy’s powers are still unclear. Using his powers, he psychically manipulates a girl he has a crush on though ultimately when the nature of Brutons powers are revealed this entire scene comes off as non sensical as the boys powers don’t involve any psychic element at all.
What the film does draw a great deal of it’s entertainment from is the strong performance from almost all the main cast. Nesbitt does a great job of portraying a man slowly losing his mind as he begins to grow more and more power hungry and uncontrollable. Dickie also does an excellent job of showing the grim determination of Bruton’s mother who has long since gone past the point of doubting her lot in life and is now solely dedicated to preserving her son.
However, the flaws within the film are numerous if relatively minor complaints. The main issue is the fact that it’s not scary. The film though believable and atmospheric, never really does enough to scare the viewer only ever managing the odd jump scare. Another complaint is the fact that, though the direction is, by and large solid throughout, every now and then there are odd choices, for example the use of a shakicam where it seems unnecessary. This, when connected with the jumbled plotline can often leave the viewer feeling out of the loop, though ultimately the film does just enough to draw you back in.
In Conclusion Outcast is an adequate if forgettable film. It’s one of those films that’s not really bad enough to criticise but also not really good enough to warrant any praise, however it does the job and if you need some way to kill time there are undoubtedly worse ways to do it.
End Verdict: Fail