Outcast (2010)

Wonderful character development!

Brilliant and touching

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

It isn't all that great, actually. Really cheesy and very predicable of how certain scenes are gonna turn play out. However, I guess that's the charm of it all, because I would consider this one of my guilty pleasures.

I just finished watching this, and I have to say I really liked it. OK, so it isn't the best film of its genre but there is something about it that I found compelling, at least compelling enough to want to watch it right through to the end. The story moves along steadily but surely and I was left wondering what's coming around the corner (or from the dark doorways) next.There are some terrific performances from some actors and actresses I had never seen before, Niall Bruton and Hanna Stanbridge, for example. The lighting was dark, and of course deliberately so to help capture the mood, and it is a moody kind of film. It is full of suspense too, which is exactly what you need from a movie like this.Would I watch it again? This is something I ask myself every time I watch a movie and for me this determines if it was worth watching in the first place. Hope that makes sense. Yes, I would certainly watch it again. A good film in my view and one I recommend to others. Please don't be dissuaded by some of the reviews you may have read.

"Outcast" is what happens when the Irish Film Board (or whatever it's called) decides to do a horror film - hence the distinct kitchen-sink drama feel to this werewolf tale. Kitchen-sink horror drama. I half-expected a stereotypical working-class Ken Loach or Mike Leigh character to start off a diatribe about the wicked Thatcher regime. Fortunately, this is just a horror film and not an exercise in left-wing whining.A look at the basic synopsis for TO would leave the wrong impression, namely that this is yet another moronic werewolf flick. I, for one, am tired of vampire movies (coffins, nails, crucifixes and fangs can go suck eggs), but werewolf films really take the cake. Nevertheless, TO is surprisingly well-made, rather original for a horror film, never goofy or dull. It has a serious air about (that holy kitchen-sink drama feel?) which prevents it from garnering unintentional laughs, which is always a "danger" in werewolf flicks.The first hour is quite good, with a nice and unusual set-up, but unfortunately the last third is a downward slide, what with some (1) predictable twists, (2) needlessly stupid plot-devices, and (3) totally unexplained goings-on.One of the predictable twists (1) was Nesbitt turning against his partner. One could see that coming from a mile. Ditto the girl getting pregnant while her young werewolvian beau gets killed. The needless plot-device (2) was getting the local bully to attack the retarded kid just so the former could get killed and set off a series of chain events that the writer/director needed for his grand finale. Personally, I think it was moronic and avoidable and could have been written far better. A totally unexplained event (3) was Nesbitt using the bully's corpse in order to find his former missus and their son: there was never any indication the bully knew anything about their w(h)ereabouts. (And if he was being used simply as a dead pigeon, well that's stupid too because Nesbitt could/should have done this with any human corpse a while ago to make the hunt less protracted, instead of merely munching off on them.) I also struggled with the absurdity of mother and son not leaving their current hideout to find a safer place. At the latest after her downtown encounter with Nesbitt, she should have left that flat. Makes no sense.Solid special effects and strong, mostly Scottish, cast certainly helps in keeping things from turning into the comical, plus the sexy, charismatic girl (Stanbridge).

First off, I don't understand why some people were so critical of this film. Having watched countless terrible so called movies from the horror genre this last year, very few could hold my attention. Yes, I will agree, it started of a wee bit slow, and yes at times you didn't know who to like more, the hunters or the hunted. Personally I thought this was quite refreshing. The setting was wonderful for an ex-pat Scot like myself, it's a pity more movies aren't made in Scotland. Of course there are parallels with Let me in, but the whole gypsy/druidic slant was nice and the acting on the whole was more than adequate and a lot better than low budget American movies where recently the actors seem to be hitting all time new lows in believability or likability. I thought this film kept my interest right up to the end, the ending wasn't as predictable as people make out, as the director really did paint quite a ambiguous slant to the main protagonist (or was that protagonists?). Anyway, for all fans of Edinburgh and people who want more from a horror movie than just another slasher psycho you should come away with few disappointments. Serious thrills are few, so I might well put this more in a supernatural category rather than horror. I think the problem with recent horror is it's hard to top the excesses of Saw and few have the storytelling genius of a director like Guillermo Del Toro to eke out a superb horror without an excess of gore. To sum up, a good attempt at a Scottish LET ME IN, not incredible but compared with recent dross a must see for horror fans who are waiting in vain for another great film like The Shining.

This was really just meant to be a filler film for me at the Edinburgh International Film Festival, I just thought I'd cram in as many films as possible and went along to a late night showing of Outcast.It was actually really really good, and compared to the pap you get to see these days if you turn up at the cinema expecting horror fare, extraordinary. Successful horror plunges deep into fears that we have, here there's some really good stuff about sexual insecurity and fear of one's own burgeoning sexuality during adolescence, fear of pregnancy, fear of homelessness, anger about parental domination.It's a story about Mary (played by Kate Dickie - the lead in Red Road) and her adolescent son Fergal (Niall Bruton). They're on the run and hiding in an Edinburgh housing estate. The mother clearly has supernatural capabilities and is being hunted by Cathal (James Nesbitt) who has been temporarily given similar supernatural capabilities. It's a ritualistic hunt. Nesbitt usually plays debonair blarney-spouting roles but is cast against type as the baddie here, which is quite refreshing.There's some sort of underground feudalism going on as well, as Cathal crosses territory and has to ask a gentleman called The Laird for permission to hunt on his grounds. Maybe some secret yearnings for the feudal past going on here. What works well with all the supernatural stuff is that it's hinted that there are much larger issues at play, but these are left as mysterious.Fergal wants to hang with Petronella, a lovely wee lassie with a short skirt who is intent on laying him from the moment he arrives on the estate. There's a good young love story here and as well a good sex scene. Mary is very keen for Fergal to stay away from Petronella and insistently suppresses him. There are some very creepy scenes where Mary dominates Fergal and warns him away from girls.The special effects scenes work really well, but I don't want to spoil those for you, I would just say though that I felt they produced a good personification of some of the fears I've been referring to.Anyway this is a film I would describe as a cauldron of angst and desire, I think it deserves to be seen, the audience applauded spontaneously at the end, if it didn't at least get a wide release in Scotland, that would be a tragedy. Walking back to my hotel that night (a long walk) was damned spooky given I was in the location of the movie!