Starring FrightFest royalty, Emily Booth and Nicholas Vince, They’re Outside is a found-footage film that sees a YouTube psychologist head to a house in the woods to help cure an agoraphobic woman. Max (Tom Wheatley) is the host of YouTube series, ‘Psychology: Inside Out’, a show that helps members of the general public overcome their fears; think The Speakman’s, but on the Internet. In dire need of a ratings winner, he tracks down a young woman, Sarah (Chrissy Randall), whom has not left her house since the tragic death of her daughter several years earlier. Certain that he can cure Sarah’s agoraphobia, Max heads to her isolated cabin and begins treatment. However, it soon becomes clear that this won’t be an easy fix, and Sarah’s phobia of leaving the house has attached itself to the local myth of the evil Green Eyes, a woodland entity whom she believes killed her child and is now after her. As Max tries to ease her fears, he finds himself being drawn into her psychosis. Will he make it back out of the woods alive?
Like fellow film, Playhouse, They’re Outside is one of two films screening at this year’s digital Arrow Video FrightFest event as part of the First Blood strand. The specially curated selection of films celebrates the works of those brand new to the world of genre film-making. Typically, there are a whole days worth of such films, but given the shortened digital format, we only have two so far, with the rest screening at the bigger (hopefully) in-person festival come October. Of the two films, They’re Outside is certainly the most starry, featuring the Horror Channel presenter, actor, and filmmaker in her own right, Emily Booth, as well as everyone’s favourite Cenobite Chatterer, Nicholas Vince. It’s a great coup for the team as having these names attached will attract a lot of viewers, especially with both names being so intimate with FrightFest itself.
Booth opens the film with a rather shocking opener, before we cut to Vince’s character whom is actually introducing the found footage. Rather than just have the typical text saying, ‘x and y went into the woods and were never seen again’, we get a detailed introduction delivered by Vince. During these moments, he warns of what we’re going to see, as well as reminding us that the film in question is cursed. It’s an almost Shakespearian style introduction, and one that proves that Nicholas Vince should definitely be presenting more shows on real TV (that voice); he adds a fun, almost taboo, quality to the footage. A similar approach – the cursed film angle at least – was used in Antrum, but what follows is a little easier to digest than that ‘cursed’ film.
Once the intro is out of the way, we transition into the movie, the footage having been cut together into a documentary by Booth’s Penny. Here we meet Max, his girlfriend and parents, and we’re given a fair bit of background to him before he head into the woods. What we see doesn’t paint him in the kindest of lights; he comes across as an egotist, and a serial flirt. These facts will come into play later down the line and the set-up feels organic.
The problems within the film begin to arise once we get to Sarah’s house. It’s quite clear that there’s something not right with her, but rather than try to do anything particularly innovative, the film falls into a lot of cliched plot points. There are some nice camera techniques utilised and there’s a nice amount of atmosphere built up in places, but ultimately They’re Outside suffers from a lack of clarity. Things start off well, the first third being quite strong, but then somewhere around the middle, the story begins to lag. From here onward, events on screen spiral so quickly that it’s hard to fully grasp what is happening and why. It also feels as though there has been a massive plot jump that shakes everything up, and brings in other characters hardly seen before; it leaves the viewer wondering what exactly is going on.
They’re Outside suffers from the same issue as the other First Blood film on this year’s FrightFest bill, Playhouse, in that at the heart of it, there is a good idea, it’s just clumsily realised. It’s to be expected given the inexperience of the filmmakers, mistakes are inevitably going to be made as you learn your trade, and as long as Hayles and Casserly learn from them, they may have a bright future in the industry.
They’re Outside was reviewed at Arrow Video FrightFest 2020.
They’re Outside
Summary
A starry, but at sometimes dreary, attempt at the found footage film. One whose set-up, like many, is far greater than the pay-off.
