The Outlaws (2024)

The Outlaws (2024): Trust Dies Fast in the West

The Outlaws (2024) is a stripped down, paranoia filled Western that wastes no time pulling the audience into its deadly mind game. Set after a successful train heist, a band of outlaws awakens to find their stolen fortune mysteriously replaced with rocks. Is there a traitor among them—or is something more sinister at play?

Directed by Joey Palmroos and Austen Paul, the film is a slow burning chamber piece dressed in dust, gunsmoke, and suspicion. With no law in sight and nowhere to run, the men are forced to turn on one another. The dialogue crackles with tension. Each glance, each silence, feels like a loaded gun.

The atmosphere is thick, evoking the spirit of classic Westerns but with a modern, almost psychological edge. The cinematography is raw and intimate, keeping you close to the sweat and fear. Yet despite the strong setup, the characters never quite come alive. We get outlines instead of full portraits, making it harder to care who makes it out and who dies in the dust.

Still, The Outlaws delivers on mood and mistrust. It’s a tale about greed, betrayal, and the terrifying silence between gunshots. While it doesn’t revolutionize the genre, it respects it—and in a tight 80 minute runtime, that might be all it needs.