And the little boy's called Erick....the Viking

Outlander(2008) Review

Outlander includes a lot of ingredients that we’ve seen before in other, better known films, infact its narrative is well worn as a genre staple. However, it’s done with such enthusiasm and good spirit that it draws you in, and leaves you glad that you made the effort. Described as primarily a mash-up of Beowolf(2007) and Predator(1987), the plot also has liberal sprinklings of plot devices and stylistic echoes from Alien 3(1992), Pitch Black(2000) and The 13th Warrior(1999) to name the most obvious.
It starts with almost a direct lift of the opening sequences from The Thing(1982), and the aforementioned Predator, as an out of control spacecraft enters the Earth’s atmosphere and crash lands( in this case, Norway in 900 AD, near a Viking encampment). The hero, Kainan, manages to get out and gets to shore while the ship goes down in a lake(Planet of the Apes(1969) anyone?). From then on the film slots pretty smoothly in to the well worn narrative you expect.
Kainan comes across a massacred village, gets caught by some Vikings and is initially suspected of the crime, even though it’s pretty obvious a huge and vicious creature did this- there are even huge claw marks all over the place. He also loses his futuristic weapon setting him up for having to adapt the weapons of the time to later kill the beast.
The film works because the characters are given a chance to develop and even prove the audiences’ assumptions wrong, Kainan is responsible for what happened in the past, and arguably now, and is more than aware of it. Wulfric(played with spirit by Jack Huston, but still coming across like a GAP model trying to butch up), the King’s son, initially comes across as a war hungry egotist who we think is going to be as much of a threat as the creature, but ultimately forms a strong bond with Kainan. In the same vein, Ron Perlman and John Hurt(both having fun, the later especially, in a more action orientated role than usual) start off as misguided tyrants to an extent, but both heroically show how they value the lives of their respective tribes.
It’s actually refreshing to have a resolutely B movie, give its audience a little credit intellectually by not spelling out everyones’ motivations in the first five minutes, or have a character with exposition to make sure no one is lost. In a way, we almost learn about the creature at the same speed as the Vikings and are drip fed information about its motivations, past and capabilities. It is also a relief not to have any twists or false endings for a change. Outlander is very classical in this sense. It gives us the red herrings of a bear taking the blame for the deaths, although we and Kainan know it wasn’t responsible( like the dockyard Tiger shark caught in Jaws(1975)), the elaborate trap that nearly captures the beast, and the mild reveal that anyone whose read or seen Beowolf( or Jaws 3(1983) for that matter) should have seen coming.
If anything, there are too many dark scenes, probably to make the most out of the effects, it can be cheesy at times(the small child who adores Kainan), the prepacked family unit at the film’s end, and does seem to lose momentum a little in the middle. Accents range from all over Europe to Sophia Myles classically trained Rada student, while someone apparently forgot to tell Perlman he had to bring one. However against this it has decent acting, although Perlman’s character should have stayed around longer, a great rousing score, nice creature design(looking like a cousin of The Relic(1997),all of the Viking checkboxes get nicely ticked off, and most intriguingly is the environmental message lurking at its heart. And just when you begin to feel overly comfortable with it, it throws up one of the nastiest, ‘being eaten alive’ scenes I’ve seen in a while, then cuts away, and then carries on with it. For this alone it has to be applauded, and while you can’t help thinking that Kirk Douglas would have killed the creature on his first attempt, this is a great Friday night flick deserving of wider appreciation. 8/10( with at least one point for the ‘eaten alive’ scene).