DVD Outliers

A young woman in her car phones her father on his birthday . His voice is incomprehensible but the woman thinks nothing of it . As she continues on her journey becomes is aware that there is something out of ordinary in the city today

There's a fair bit wrong with this short film . From a technical point out of view the cinematography insists on deliberately going out of focus and from a narrative point of view there's a serious gap in logic and scientific fact . The narrative revolves around the outbreak of a virus and the inhabitants trying to escape a city that has been put in to lockdown so we're creeping in to high concept horror territory as seen in George A Romero's THE CRAZIES and 28 WEEKS LATER . There's no zombies in it which means its sensible and realistic but by being based in a realistic scenario your attention is drawn to the fact that a virus has an incubation period so by the time a population starts showing symptoms and dying the genie has been let out of the bottle so a lockdown has seen here would have no effect because you'e closing the stable door after the horse has well and truly bolted . It remains unexplained what this virus is and how it only seems confined to this town ?

This might not matter too much and the production team have concentrated on a brooding mood of a town falling apart as people become aware of their own mortality . The opening scene is reminiscent of WORLD WAR Z but is much more sensible and the short concentrates on the human element of the drama and OUTLIERS is of interest for those people interested in apocalyptic / speculative fiction