Netflix review: ‘Outside’ mixes zombie thrills, toxic family drama

A scene from ‘Outside.’ Netflix 

It was in the middle of a zombie apocalypse. Francis (Sid Lucero) was driving his nurse wife Iris (Beauty Gonzalez) and their two boys Josh (Marco Masa) and Lucas (Aiden Tyler Patdu) towards his ancestral house beside a sugar cane farm. There, Francis found that his parents had already fallen victim to the zombie horde. Francis wanted to stay in the house, while Iris wanted to go further north to safety.

This Netflix original Filipino film was written and directed by Carlo Ledesma, whose past filmography included horror thrillers like “Tunnel” (2011) and “Sunod” (2019). This was marketed as a zombie film, and to be sure there were some pretty nifty zombie effects. For me, the best one was when Francis saw his zombified mother (Bing PImentel) break apart at her waist. You soon realize, however, that the zombies are not the main source of horror.

This was really more of an intense psychological drama that involved one nuclear family. The father Francis was disturbed by traumatic memories of his childhood under a sadistic father (Joel Torre). He had always lived under the shadow of his elder brother Diego (James Blanco), the golden boy of the family. He and Iris had also been experiencing a very rough patch in their marriage, with issues of fidelity had cast an oppressive pall on their family.

As he had shown in several sinister characters he had portrayed in the past, Sid Lucero can really play a demented psycho very well. Lucero is really the heir apparent to excellent character actors like Vic Silayan and John Arcilla, who can portray all sorts of crazy from the most subtle to violently explosive. That “Christmas dinner” scene, with Lucero wearing a Christmas sweater serenely lording it over his cowering family, showcased this all too well.

Beauty Gonzalez is becoming the go-to actress for horror flicks, with “Hellcome Home” (2019), “In My Mother’s Skin” (2023) and “Kampon” (2023) just before this one. As Iris, Gonzalez was really pushed to dramatic and horrific extremes way past what we have seen from her before. That scene when Iris saw Lucas with a bleeding arm showcased Beauty Gonzalez at her hysterical best, yet you know she was still fully aware and in full control of her wits.

Director Carlo Ledesma and his cinematographer Cheung Shing-Fung created a lot of beautiful images, with excellent blocking, framing and camera angle choices and gorgeous overhead drone shots. The jump scares were well-executed, the best one being that shock scene of the wounded soldier (Enchong Dee) at the breakfast table. However, those very prolonged scenes of toxic family dynamics dragged the momentum down as a whole.

This review was originally published in the author’s blog, “Fred Said.”