PRESENTS

This felt a little bit like watching a prequel to a series I've never seen, or maybe like everyone else in the audience had read a book or manual of some kind. I do appreciate a cold open, but if half way through the story I am still asking myself things like "wait, he can do that?", "hold on, do we know this guy?", "hold on, where are we?", then it has gone from strategically leaving the audience the dark to forgetting the audience isn't in your head. Outcast is full of juicy, dark and gruesome witchcraft and lore that is always a joy to watch, but it fails to set any rules for the gritty world the takes place in which significantly lowers the stakes and makes it tougher for the audience to suspend their disbelief and engage with the action. This is a shame for a few reasons, some of which being that the acting was really excellent and the practical effects, as well as gore makeup, were top notch. With a little trimming and streamlining of the script early on, those good traits would have really shown through.