While horror is filled with countless terrifying concepts and monsters, few things are as scary as the simple idea of, “What if you were confined in a space and couldn’t leave?” In a world where most people have had the unfortunate experience of quarantining for months, viewers understand the subtle terrors of this premise, of how claustrophobic a house begins to feel after staying in it for too long and how easy dark thoughts can pollute whatever optimism you have about your situation. Now imagine that with zombies.

This is the premise of Carlo Ledesma’s Outside, Netflix’s newest zombie movie that finds a family struggling to survive an undead apocalypse at the patriarch’s childhood home. What follows is a showcase of not only physical fear but also mental torment. Audiences watch as this family’s unacknowledged secrets begin to turn what could have been a refuge into just another pocket of horror in this ravaged world. It’s a great subversion of the subgenre that addresses aspects of this scenario that are never discussed and, through its shocking finale, reveals that survival doesn’t mean anything if you don’t know how to live.

In ‘Outside,’ Problematic Family Members Are Scarier Than Zombies

Outside begins like your typical zombie film as we see the Abel Family fleeing their zombie-infested city, hoping that their father’s childhood home will be safe from the undead horde. Cracks in the family unit begin to show quickly; there’s clear discontent between father, Francis (Sid Lucero), and mother, Iris (Beauty Gonzalez), which is only worsened when they return to the house that Francis suffered childhood abuse in. It’s a toxic relationship that spreads to their already terrified children, tween Joshua (Marco Masa) and young Lucas (Aiden Tyler Padtu), with the hostility Francis begins to develop for his entire family beginning to fill their “haven” with its own sense of utterly human dread. Each act of the film reveals more about the issues within this family and the atrocities of their past. However, while the scenes of these folks fighting off zombies are scary, it’s the repercussions of this unresolved trauma that truly create Outside’s horror.

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From childhood abuse to familial affairs, audiences learn quickly about the many issues this family has ignored and see through Francis’ devolving mental state the effects of unresolved trauma. While the film does make you pity the man for his past, it doesn’t excuse his actions; from faking a Zombie attack to holding his family hostage, the plot paints him as the tragic yet malicious protagonist of this film. That’s what makes it even more terrifying when viewers see Francis and realize something terrible — he’s relatable. Many zombie projects show how people will still fight against one another in a zombie-infested world, but few have delved into the terribly understandable concept of what being stuck with the dark secrets you’ve tried to ignore does to someone.

Francis’ actions are horrible yet they reflect the very real mental downfall many people face when quarantining with those they have issues with; though sadly for the man’s family, the repercussions of his anguish are pushed to lethal levels by crowds of gnashing teeth. It’s a horrifically real showcase of how one man’s bad mental health can ruin him and how he can take his innocent family down with him in a finale filled with dead family members and jaw-dropping amputations.

‘Outside’ Shows Horror Beyond a Zombie Apocalypse

While Outside is a stellar innovation in how it imbues trauma and depression into its story of survival, this isn’t at the expense of its central monsters. There are numerous scenes of these twisted creatures trying to feast on the family, and the film takes an interesting approach by discussing what would actually happen to this zombie population should their food source be cut off. It succeeds with the visceral terror that all the best zombie movies have. But where the film really thrives is how it investigates the human fears of its no-longer-human horror. Francis’ mental degradation is unnerving to watch, and it leaves audiences constantly scared for the poor family forced to take refuge with him. It fills this zombie story with a dreadful sense of relatable fear and, with its devastating conclusion for this family who just wanted safety, communicates a valuable message to a post-quarantine audience: Handle your issues with those around you, because you never know when you’ll be stuck with them.

Outside Release Date October 11, 2024 Director Carlo Ledesma Cast Sid Lucero , Beauty Gonzalez , Marco Antonio Masa , Aiden Patdu , James Blanco , Enchong Dee , Joel Torre , Bing Pimentel Writers Carlo Ledesma

Outside is available to stream on Netflix in the U.S.

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