Outside (2024 film)

Outside
Promotional release poster
Directed by	Carlo Ledesma
Written by	Carlo Ledesma
Produced by	Paul Soriano Mark Victor
Starring	Sid Lucero Beauty Gonzalez Marco Masa Aiden Tyler Patdu
Production company	Black Cap Pictures
Distributed by	Netflix
Release date	October 17, 2024 (2024-10-17)
Running time	142 minutes
Country	Philippines
Language	Filipino

Outside is a 2024 Philippine post-apocalyptic drama horror film written and directed by Carlo Ledesma. It stars Sid Lucero, Beauty Gonzalez, Marco Masa, and Aiden Tyler Patdu. The film tells the story of a family trying to outrun a zombie outbreak by returning to the father's childhood farmhouse.

Plot

The Abel family, composed of Francis, his wife Iris, and their sons Joshua and Lucas, flee a zombie outbreak in the city. Arriving at Francis' parents' mansion on a sugarcane plantation, Francis finds his father and a servant having committed suicide after being infected and his mother reanimated as a zombie. After killing his mother, Francis and his family settle in the house. It is later revealed that Francis is traumatized at being locked up in the basement as a child by his father. At the same time, his marriage to Iris is in trouble after he discovers that Iris has been unfaithful to him and that his elder brother Diego is Joshua's biological father.

Days later, Iris convinces Francis to find another sanctuary, but they are forced to turn back and abandon their van at a zombie-infested checkpoint. Francis leaves his family at the mansion and goes back to retrieve the van, but instead ends up with fuel for the mansion's generator. Joshua learns of a safe zone over the radio and tries to convince Francis to investigate, only for the latter to taunt him and instead teach him how to fire a gun. However, the gunshots attract a horde of zombies which besiege the family inside the house until Diego arrives and lures them away with his vehicle. The next day, the brothers try to reconcile, but Francis, who harbors resentment against Diego due to him being favored by their parents and his affair with Iris, rejects his offer to guide them to the safe zone and drives him away at gunpoint. Diego leaves Francis a map leading to the safe zone should he change his mind.

After Francis overhears Iris deducing that the zombies are weakening and dying off over time, he stages being attacked by multiple zombies outside and barricades the mansion while locking his family inside and spiraling further into paranoia. Joshua eventually finds Diego's map and confronts Francis over dinner, leading to Iris finally admitting that she wants to leave him and Francis acknowledging that Joshua is not his son. Francis produces the map but burns it in front of Iris, who storms off. Later that night, a wounded soldier named Corcuera seeks shelter at the mansion and confirms that there are now less zombies outside. He adds that he was guided to the mansion by Diego, who was killed by the zombies.

The next day, Joshua, fed up with his father's actions, leaves the mansion. Upon discovering this, Francis goes berserk, kills the soldier with a hammer, and locks Iris and Lucas in the basement. That night, Lucas feigns getting sick in order to gain Francis' attention. Iris then stabs Francis and locks him in the basement while taking Lucas for their escape. Francis tries to follow but becomes immobilized by flashbacks of his father locking him up. As Iris and Lucas open the main door they are chased back inside by a reanimated Diego, who bites Lucas. Francis, hearing his family's screams, recovers his sanity and escapes the basement. Francis kills Diego but collapses into a stupor upon seeing Lucas being bitten, leaving Iris alone to amputate his infected limb. Francis then returns to the checkpoint to retrieve their van, but is shot by a nervous Joshua, who mistakes Francis for a zombie due to the latter's stuttering and bloodied appearance. As Joshua begs for forgiveness, Francis acknowledges him as his son and dies, leaving Joshua to drive the van and rescue his mother and brother.

Cast

• Sid Lucero as Francis
• Beauty Gonzalez as Iris
• Marco Masa as Joshua
• Aiden Tyler Patdu as Lucas
• Joel Torre as Arturo
• James Blanco as Diego
• Enchong Dee as a soldier
• Bing Pimentel as Francis' mother

Production

Carlo Ledesma cited family dramas and post-apocalyptic films such as The Day After and the Mad Max franchise as his inspiration for the film.

Beauty Gonzalez and Sid Lucero were confirmed to be part of the film in a press statement on a streaming platform on October 11, 2023. While Outside overtly tackles a zombie apocalypse, the production theme intended to incorporate mental health as a theme. Among these is generational trauma.

Principal photography was held in La Carlota and Kabankalan, Negros Occidental, the home province of Ledesma, Gonzales and Lucero. A Filipino-style mansion and a sugarcane farm were specific shooting locations. The film is 142 minutes long and was billeted by Netflix as its first original zombie film set in the Philippines.

Filming last around a month and was hampered by weather conditions. The zombies were portrayed by residents of the province in makeup. The zombies are capable of speech with the director intentionally not wanting them to be portrayed as "mindless monsters".

Release

The film was initially set to release worldwide in Netflix originally on October 11, 2024 but was moved to October 17, 2024.

Reception

The film received a score of 72/100 from 18 reviews according to review aggregator website Kritikultura, indicating a generally positive reception.

Film critic Fred Hawson gave the film a 7 out of 10 rating and praised the film's cinematography and Lucero and Gonzalez's acting, while criticizing parts of the dialogue for being dragging.

Pramit Chatterjee of Digital Mafia Talkies gave the film a rating of 4 out of 5 and praised Ledesma for "striking fear into the hearts of bad parents by showing that if this cycle of mistreatment isn’t put to an end, its repercussions can be deadlier than a zombie bite".

Giving a rating of 3.5 over 5, Archi Sengupta praised the film and described it as "a zombie horror/psychological horror that gets most of its (horrifying) notes right and leaves you feeling oddly emotional in the end".

External links

• Outside on Netflix
• Outside at IMDb